THE 



PASSOVER. 



A POEM. 




Hv J. F, HAR^JEY, 



.H4- 



Copyright secured by deposite with 
Librarian of Congress. 



THE ARGUMENT. 

In June, 1881, a brilliant comet appeared in the northeast part 
of the heavens, and the poem opens with a description of tlie 
surroundings, and some suggestions of the emotions, wonders 
and desires, always aroused by such ph nomena. 

The telescope and spectrum are introduced as aids invented 
by intellect to overcome the loss of some power or quality which 
it once possessed and had lost, or the development of an in- 
herent ability in its constitution. 

The speech of Dion is directed to the probability that what 
man has lost in intellectual power and moral purity by his fall 
and the knowledge of evih is in a measure compensated by the 
yet higher development that springs from overcoming evil, and 
from the energy aroused in our moral nature in asserting its 
superiority. 

TJie speecli of Shiraz is an assertion of what probably 
would have been the tendency and powers of the human mind 
had it never been affected by sin and evil, as is exemplified in 
his own state and those surrounding him. 

The prayer of Zeno and his discourse is to demonstrate the 
absolute power of God in the moral and physical world, and that 
His goodness, wisdom, and mercj' are manifested in every part. 
It is illustrated by reference to a world and a race of humanity that 
had never known evil, and an allusion is made also to the earth 
and its inhabitants; and a suggestion that all their trials and^ 
misfortunes may result in a higher development and greater 
glory, than could have been reached by any other process. 

The conclusion of the poem is a paraphrase of the 1st. 2nd 
and 3rd chapters, of Genesis, in which is given the order of crea- 
tion, the plans and purpose of its construction, the coming of 
man, his capacity and education: his career and labors in his 
first estate, the Garden of Eden— Avhat it was— the origin of 
woman — the reasoning and causes that brought about the tempta- 
tion are given — the consequences are noted and woman is 
vindicated by the redemption of Christ through the prophetic 
promise made to her. The final part is a desire and willingness 
to accept the conditions allotted to the human race and trust in 
the hopes and promises of a future life. 



pr((\ud((. 



My preface cannot now reveal, 
What I may write, I only feel 
— An impulse, with my being, wrought — 
— An instinct or an afterthought, — 
To dimly trace my pathway back, 
As though uncertain of the track. 
By whence I came to where I go. 
And seek the mystery, to know. 
How soul and reason with their train. 
Are lost within their own domain. 

And why thus wandering all alone, 
Still seeking rest and finding none 
When wrapped within my being's thrall 
(A part of it, and yet not all,) 
There is a mental light, divine, 
A part of the eternal mind 
That glows in all created parts 
As ruddy gold in blooming quartz 
This mind of God a living thought, 

With all creation interwrought 
In forms of law and holds control 
Of matter as a living Soul, 
Has by its word revealed to me 
My origin and destiny. 
From whence this revelation came — 
I know because the seal's the same 
As that upon my soul impressed. 
I feel its sanction in my breast. 
It comes the force of a command 
In language which I understand. 
But this relief does not suffice, 
Again the clouds of doubt arise, — 
Why thus the sense of being lost, 
And on the angry billows tost, — 



(> 

The good the hght so far away, 
And darkness mingled with the day. 
Perfection speaks in all that's wrought, 
Outside the work of human thought 
All else created things are free, 
While sin and evil's over me. 

I heard a voice from far below, 
Where only feeble instincts glow; 
I heard the same from all around, 
Where thought is manifest by sound ; 
I heard it from another state. 
As passing through an open gate ; 
These are the words my senses greet, 
Put off the sandals from thy feet. 
Come near the light and ope thine eyes 
Fear not the learning that makes wise 
And let thy reason free from chains 
Assert its right in God's domains 
Totravelfree and so accord 
With revelations of his word 
For light divine and reason's flame 
Are emanations from the same 
Just as all lights around the sun 
By day are blended into one. 

CANTO I. 

Thus as I mused the summer day 
Of balmy June had passed away. 
And shade of light with crimson dyes 
W^as bannered on the azure skies. 
A tapistry whose border line 
Was glowing with the hues divine, 
And fringed the shores that lay be- 
tween 
The blue abyss and forest green. 

CANTO II. 
Again I looked, the screen of light, 
That day had mantled over night, 



Had rolled away and there revealed, 

The wonders day had kept concealed. 

The space of dark eternal blue, 

That seemed so limitless to view ; 

(By faith an attribute of Saul, 

That sees where sight has no control) 

I saw was bounded by a shore, 

That liem'd its borders evermore — 

A realm of mind, spiritual, 

A fitted place for God to dwell, 

A land materialess as elf. 

And uncreated like himself. 

And as I sought by faith to see 

This land of hglit, I felt the thrills 

Of w^andering wdnds of ecstacy, 

That must have blown from ofi its hills. 

For as I watched the wondrous host, 

That gliftered on that starry coast, 

I felt within a keen desire. 

Which mortal life could not inspire — 

A wish to follow in the track ; 

Of spirits, home, returning back 

From Mercy's mission of the age. 

Or from a weary pilgrimage. 

III. 

Again, I watched for orbs on high. 
In constellations of the sky. 
Where rankless mass of starry troops 
Were martialed in fantastic groups ; 
There chairs and ships and whales 

and hounds 
Were occupying common bounds; 
And fish and eagles' forms were blent 
Aloft in ether element, 
Capella w^aived his torch of light 
As leader of the northern night. 
And all, as by one impulse, roll 
Around the centre of the whole. 



IV. 

Up in this Hrmamentof worlds 
A foreigner its flag unfurls, 
Of shapeless form and dubious face, 
With no credentials of its race. 
No track behind, no way before. 
What law controls is hidden lore, 
'rhe halo flashing as it run. 
Hung as a shadow from the sun. 
A wavy gauze of shaded light 
Trailed on the offing in it's flight. 

Y. 

The learned in science failed to speak 

To 6alm the terrors of the weak ; 

But gravely puzzled watched with awe, 

Phenomena without a law, 

A der«izen without a place, 

A steed unbridled in a race. 

YI. 

From whence it came, to where it goes, 
No sage can tell, no prophet knows. 
What law directs its onward course ? 
What will supplies propelling force ? 
Tt gives no answer, nor explains 
Why found on planetary plains. 
The weak suspicion it a spy, 
An exile from some other sky, 
A waif expelled for penal years, 
Afus^itive from other spheres. 
With curses lashed through endless 

space. 
Dispensing horror in its race. 

YII. 

I paused and shuddered at the thought. 
That God should thus be charged with 

aught. 
About his works to indicate. 



A want of love to thus create, 
A source of terror and despair, 
To us, the objects of His care. 
All space around His goodness fills. 
His love through every atom thrills, 
And every creature he has made. 
Is witness to this truth, displayed 
On earth, and seas, in skies above. 
His power is bounded by his love. 

YIII. 

The bird is brooding on her nest, 
Maternal hope now soothes her rest, 
Her mate has ceased his roundelay 
Of amorous songs the livelong day. 
And on his perch has passed, it seems? 
From waking joys, to joyous dreams. 
The fire-fly from his couch of green 
Mounts up to mingle in the scene 
And meet the stars, to catch by night 
The inspiration of their light. 
And as he rises in the air 
And breathes the thrilling essence there 
The joys which in his bosom throng, 
Burst out in light, instead of song. 
The wee white blossom at my feet. 
Is nestled in its clovery sweet, 
x\nd sipping honey from the dew. 
As dozing in the darkened view 
And dreaming in its reverie 
Of coming kisses of the bees 
It waits the coming of the dawn 
To greet the flowerets of the lawn. 

IX. 

Will he who thus has blessed the earth 
With themes of gladness. and of mirth 
Train in the skies a wandering scourge 
■And through the heaven a monster urge? 

X. 
With chastened faith in hopes to see 
Solution of this mystery. 



10 

I poised a tube, which science kens 
Well spaced with achromatic lens, 
And trained it to that wondrous star 
(A. strano-er from the realms afar) ; 
Adjusted well the instrument 
Thereto attached, with the intent 
By lines and cosines to discover [over^ 
The course it leads, the way })assed 
A deft contrivance Science made, 
To measure by minutest shade. 
Both size and distance far in space. 
And bring the objects from their place, 
To contact with the thinker's mind, 
In mathematic thought entwined. 
Just as the field of heaven in view, 
Is' painted on the retinue. 

XI. 
I gazed in wonder looking through 
The lens, that brought the star in view^ 
So magnified, that I could see. 
The atmosphere around it free. 
Yet still the secret I would know, 
Was held enveloped by the glow, 
That veiled in its mysterious light 
The subtle form from mortal sight, 
That e'en the telescopic power 
Stood baffled in its prying hour. 

XII. 
'Tis midnight now o'er half the world, 
The pall of darkness is unfurled ; 
This side 's a tomb, one half is dead, 
Some sleep in graves, and some in bed, 
And sleep and death, consorts in time, 
Keep vigils with their daughter, crime; 
And sin and crime, and sleep, and death, 
Hold tyrant sway o'er living breath. 

XIII. 
Such was the bitterness of soul, 
I felt, and saw the comet roll. 
In far off space, it seemed to me, 



11 

To hold some human mystery. 
Some problem yet unsolved, of life, 
Some key to reconcile tlie strife, 
Twixt matter and its master, mind, 
Which here on earth is held combined 
In such ignoble false alloy 
That matter niay the mind destroy. 
Unless some power exists beyond 
Where mind and matter hoth respond. 

XIY. 

As some poor waif upon the sea. 
With nothing but a piece of wreck, 
Betwixt him and eternity. 
He spies a sail upon his lea. 
And thinks he almost sees the deck, 
Where happy thoughtless passengers 
All full of life and gaiety 
Are passing to the home of theirs ; 
Yet onward without slackening sail, 
The vessel leaves the wretch to wail 
With no companionship but death, 
When fate metes out his latest breath. 
Thus disappointed, looked I on. 
The star passed down the horizon. 

XY. 

Again 'twas evening and the shields 
Of light and darkness, thafc revolves 
Around the earth, had brought the fields 
Betwixt the two, where one dissolves 
Into the next, — the border line, 
Was o'er the earth, with every sign 
Of passing from fche glare of day 
To evening shade and twilight gray. 
I stood upon a mountain crest, 
Like Tabor, where the Savior stood, 
And met with spirits of the blest, 
That claimed a human brotherhood. 
And there in view of mortal sight. 
His raiment changed to purest white. 



12 

His face so marked with human care, 
Shone with celestial glory there, 
The very atmosphere around 
Was vocal with the heavenly sound 
Of greeting from the Holy ^Jne 
"This is my well beloved Son." 

XYI. 
I stood as though on holy ground, 
With thrilling memories around, 
And looked before me, where the clouds, 
Hung o'er the hills in misty shrouds. 
Adorned their brow with silver sheen, 
And robed their sides in forest green. 

And clothed their slopes with harvest 

ears. 
And washed their dusty feet with tears. 
There from the founts of dew and rain 
The stream meandered through the 

plain. 
And joined the current of the river 
which poured into the sea forever. 
There tired ships at anchor lay. 
On folded wings within the bay ; 
The busy hive along the shore 
From out this hold removed the store 
Of wealth and sweets, from other lands, 
To hoarded cells, with willing hands. 
The wealth that ministers to vice. 
The wealth that buys the sacrifice. 

XYII. 

I looked again out to the west, 
A scene to thrill the artist's breast. 
The sea was mirror to the sky, 
The sky reflected back the blue. 
There mingling every gorgeous dye 
Resplendent on the morning dew. 
A living picture , where the lines 
Of beauty change to new designs. 
So evanescent that the mind 
Lost all conception of the kind 



That bad preceded it until 

The subtile essence of the will 

Was blending with the changing scene, 

With such prolixity, I ween. 

The lines dividing w^ere unseen— 

The purple shade to crimson wed 

May be the loving hope that's dead; 

The silver lining of the cloud 

May be the solace from the shroud; 

The azure glowing through the whole 

Be inspiration of the soul. 

To draw the scene would be to try 

To quote a smile, or paint a sigh. 

XVIII. 

I took a web of darkened cloth, 
And on the mount I built a booth, 
And on the side next to the star 
I opened a small aperture. 
A ray of light could then be seen 
To pass within upon a screen. 
Across the ray I placed a prism 
To analyze the gleam of hght, 
(As doctrines by the catechism, 
Are separated to the sight.) 
The border glowed with Iris hues, 
As on the cloud dissolving views 
When e'er the promise is renewed, 
The earth is spared for future good. 

XIX. 

The blossom springing from the bud. 
And spreading beauties all abroad. 
With forms and colors so refined, 
As seems the opposite of mind. 
Is but the harbinger of fruit, — 
The van of what is in pursuit. 
The purpose aimed is yet behind. 
I watched with care the grand display, 
From the dispersion of a ray, 
That colorless had held combined 
All colors in one ray entwined, 



14 

And by the fiat of some cause 
Each had responded to its laws; 
And ranlied in order on tlie screen 
The severed parts of hght were seen — 
A vision of subhnie halo 
In magic radiance of the bow. 

XX. 

I looked behind to watch for lines 
Which Froenhofer marked as signs 
Of matter from another sphere 
That here as darkened lines appear. 
Oh ! miracle ! and can it be. 
The staff of which a world is made 
Can join with light and travel free, 
And on the canvas be portrayed. 
While this immortal soul of mine 
Made up of elements divine 
Is held in thralldom from its birth 
By gravitation to the earth? 

XXI. 

With care I noted from the chart 

Each line and element apart, 

Some metals of familiar face. 

Some doubtful and seemed out of place. 

Some shades denoting there was sent 

To us an unknown element. 

While thus in wonder I absorb 

The tales these messages afford, 

I noted yet another line, 

Whose shade I could but ill-define. 

At times 'twas deep and swelling wide, 

Again receding as the tide. 

It trembling glowed, then indistinct, 

Then deepened dark as marked with ink, 

I looked askant, 'twas from that star 

The message hailed from out afar. 

XXII. 

That mystic line was throbbing still. 
And seemed appealing to the will, 



15 

As thougli to matter not confined, 

'Twas a sensation from the mind, 

Not animate by laws decree 

Bat intellectual sympathy. 

My soul awoke, where reasons pause, 

To solve a sequence without cause. 

And beat upon its prison bars 

And longed to mingle with the stars. 

XXIII. 

As some strong captive on the seas. 
On slaver's ship, in gyves and chains, 
A moment's respite, to the breeze, — 
He looked back to his land again. 
Where late he reigned an honored king, 
And willing subjects tributes bring 
Of love and wealth and honors, all 
In meek submission to his call 
There herds of kine and swarms of men 
Gave wealth and homage to him then 
And stately lords and gentle dames 
Enlivened his court with cheerful games. 
His subjects yielded him their fate 
His beckon was the law of state 
But now in chains and ranked a slave 
His destiny a foreign grave 
He looked around, no solace there, 
One only rescue in despair. 
The scaly monsters of the brine 
Were better friends than humankind, — 
One maddening leap, the splashing wave 
Was his pavilion and his grave. 

XXIY. 
Such was the agonizing spell 
My spirit felt within it swell, 
As it looked back to powers lost, 
What slavery into sin had cost, — 
From source above inteUigence, 
A kindred to omnipotence ; 
It spurned the reasoning that imputes 
An evolution from the brutes ; 



16 

And felt a consciousness within, 
That 't was of heavenly origin, 
And knows it hreathes a living breath 
That bids defiance unto death. 
And as Elijah went, it goes, 
And as Elijah comes, it knows, 
It has the power of light that flies 
A spirit wandering in the skies. 

XXV. 

Again I looked, the mystic line. 
Was moved by sensate power divine, 
Around above its zone expands 
In azure lines and circhng bands 
It filled the space as ether fills. 
It thrilled the soul as ether thrills. 
I felt the power of some appeal, 
I felt? oh, no! I ceased to feel. 

XXYI. 

I woke as from an opiate sleep, 
A dream of flight from other spheres. 
How^ long the time I could not keep 
It might have been one moment's leap- 
It might have been a hundred years. 
I felt a moment's throb of pain, 
(A dim sequence of former strife), 
A sense of being born again. 
With memory of a former life. 
My lungs inhale the blessed air. 
Such as we breath, on mountains fair. 
Where no malarial poisons slay 
No exhalations from decay ; 
No stinted void of vital breath ; 
No taint of ailment or of death. 

xxyii. 

I seemed to be within a tent 

A tabernacle in extent. 

With lofty columns to the nave 

Around the richest architrave. 

The floor was set with greenest grass 



17 

In which the starry flowers grow, 
And all congealed in burnished glass, 
That showed a iirmament below. 

XXYJII. 

Around the walls in amber frames, 
Were ranged tlie scenic works of art, 
1 could not tell designs or names, 
J did not know their counterpart, 
One picture I could recognize 
Its history was plain to see — 
Some artist witness of the skies 
Had drawn the scene on Calvary 
And every feature curve and line 
Had an inspired touch divine 
Imparted from artist mind 
Yet glowing there, and every word 
And scene which on that mount occurred 
Was to the canvas all transferred. 

XXIX. 

Mv soul took in the awful view, 
With every portrait one by one. 
What old iParhassus could not do, 
There on the canvas had been done. 
I saw the gloating Pharisee. 
I heard the rabble shout of glee, 
The clicking hammer on the nail, 
The soldiers curse, the mourner's wail 
The thief's appeal the dying prayer, 
The darkness that eclipsed dispair 
And through the gloom on eclio thrilled 
That pronhecy had been fulfilled. 
Beyond I saw another day 
The cross a banner in display 
An open tomb its captive free 
And heard a shout of victory. 

XXX. 

With happy tears I blessed the Lord, 
Such evidence these scenes afford, 

Who ever made this tent must be, 
Of surety some akin to me. 



18 

XXXI. 

A bird of Paradise o'er head, 
A ceiling made with wings outspread, 
And from its beak by golden bars, 
Was hung a chandelier of stars. 
Its light like blessings over all, 
Diffused no shadows by its fall 
'Twas softer than the garish day, 
'Twas brighter than the Lunar ray. 
Attempered right for each it seems 
To waking thoughts or quiet dreams. 

XXXII. 

Arranged in other parts there stood, 
A cabinet of costly wood, 
Where every shelf and drawer was filled, 
With instruments' for science skilled 
And each department had its share, 
Excepting for disease aad war. 
Another side was stored with books. 
Or such they seemed to me — their looks, 
Was something as a scroll or chart. 
Or drawing which the theme imparts, 
A universal type of thought, 
With words and ideas inter wrought. 
So deft the meaning was conveyed, 
Without interpretation's aid. 
Rich furniture was scattered round, 
In such confusion as abound. 
In forest scattering of trees. 
Or in the falling of the leaves 
Where order would the law deform 
Which Nature made for beauty's charm. 
Tables and stands of ebony 
And chairs of whitest ivory. 
Sofas and divans and what not. 
Were scattered round in such a lot 
As though the inmates of the room 
Were brieliy absent from their home. 



19 

XXXIII. 

One end there was the curtain drawn 
Which looked out on a cultured lawn 
Grently descending to a rill, 
That rij3pled from its mother hill; 
Across the stream a rustic bridge 
With walk ascending to the ridge 
Upon which summit stood alone 
A precious temple built of stone. 
'Twas less in size, in other count 
'Twas made from model in the mount, 
The builder better imderstood, 
The plan than heathen Hyram could 
The stone rejected by the one, 
Was made the head and corner stone. 
Above was such a halo there. 
Where incense meets return of prayer 
I could no safe conclusion draw, 
Because I darst not lift my eyes. 
There vvas the bush which Moses saw, 
And Adam knew in Paradise. 

XXXIV. 

I heard a song and chant within 
At first a low and plaintive air, 
And then a loud but mellow din. 
And then an anthem pealing there, 
And then a joyous shout of praise, 
With flashing lights the windows blaze 
Then pleading notes of solemn prayer. 
The temple door was opened wide, 
And worshipers then side by side, 
In pairs descend down the hill, 
And crossed upon the bridge, the rill, 
And leisurely I saw them come [home. 
Toward the tent which seemed their 
What men were they, and where was I, 
I knew I 'd left the earth behind. 
And still I knew I did not die 
I was the same in form and mind. 



20 

This is no land beyond the grave. 
Nor home of souls He died to save, 
There are no reasons why I should, 
Yet claim to thus immortal be, 
These men were surely flesh and blood, 
And must be some akm to me. 
And yet the fact was evident 
These men were not of the descent 
Of Adam after his disgrace, — 
On either hand there was no trace, 
Of weapons for destruction made, 
No polished spear or petted blade. 
No shield for warding of disease. 
No fear of d<^ath to mar their ease, 
No covert hints could be conceived 
They doubted God or disbelieved. 
No marring of the one design. 
No clashing of conflicting mind. 
But one harmonious range of laws 
From object to their primal cause. 
And still I felt related there. 
It was a land of hope and prayer 
A land where aspirations met 
Their satisfy without regret 
Where intellect had full control 
And God was present in the whole 
I felt with diffidence oppressed 
The fear of an unbidden guest 
In mingled hope and deep concern 
Concealed I waited their return. 

XXXY. 
They loitered in with quiet air 
And dropped on sofa, cot, or chair 
When one exclaimed this day's surprise 
Of blessings on our enterprise 
And lessons that have blessed our sight 
From the Chekinah's hallowed hght 
Is more significant and clear 
Than doubtful oracles appear. 
While on this course that now we run 



21 

In coasting round this central sun 
We surely shall communicate 
With people of some other state. 

xxxvr. 

Then Dion spoke and said, "For days 
I've been observant of the rays 
From a planet of the third degree — 
I know we have its history — 
Among our books — I recollect 
On our last voyage 't was almost wrecked 
T' was veiled in slavery dark as night 
And wrapped in crime and moral blight. 
Ambitious monarchs ruled the state 
While virtue starved behind the grate, 
Learning had fled from power in halls 
To find a home in prison walls. 
Kelio^ion banished from her seat 
By superstitions counterfeit. 
The law of love men ceased to know. 
This was a thousand years ago. 
Since then a wondrous change occurred, 
One half 's now lighted by the word. 
The word of Life which is the thrill, 
Of moral strength and mental will, — 
And trusts which ignorance concealed, 
That word, and science has revealed, 
And by the energy of thought. 
Has penetrated to the source [brought 
And from their darkened chambers 
Condensed in matter latent force. 
And set it free, then made it slave. 
And to it iron muscles gave. 
This monster power as Sampson, blind, 
Was trained by mastery of mind, 
They chained it fast to loaded cars. 
They set its wheels on iron bars 
Away it flew, by day and night. 
Across a continent its flight 
Onward up the mountain steep 
Then over rivers broad and deep, 



22 

A servitor of giant mould 

A ticking watch its speed controlled^ 

An avalanche, it stopped at will, 

A slave, it hurried up the hill, 

It took the burdens from the serf 

And banished famine from tne earth, 

''Old ocean's melancholy waste" 
Where Chaos marshalled her remains 
Now feels the energizing haste 
Of words that cross her slimy plains, 
On metal nerves, by motor proud, 
That's wrested from the stormy cloud. 
Now under seas, now under skies 
On sentient wire the message flies 
Then over plains, and through the woods 
By cities and through solitudes 
^.nticipating time, 't will guide 
The train that 's lagging by its side. 
On earth such wonders have been 
By power invisible as thought, [wrought 

Thus Dion lounging on his cot, 

In easy luxury and not 

Addressing language to the crowd, 

But talking to himself aloud. 

This morn on earth I have observed, 

How men by a contrivance swerved. 

Each color from a ray of light, 

And left each spangle pure and bright, 

Then disentengle from the ray 

The elements thus brought away 

From other worlds, as samples take. 

Of substance entering in their make. 

I formed a battery of mind 

In which by circuits I combined 

The nerve the simpathy and will 

Which all our party could instill 

This force refined, with instrument 

Along a ray of light, I sent 

It formed a line of sympathy 



23 

By which a soul might come to me. 

I left the instrument in poise 

The hattery working without a noise 

This line to earth is yet complete 

I half expect we yet may greet 

On this our wandering home and star 

From thence a living visitor . 

The language spoke the sense defined, 

With such directness to my mind, 

It seemed from the neglected past. 

Some memories were awoke at last. 

Of sounds familiar to my ear, 

As though they were venacular. 

With doubt and fear I kept concealed, 

Behind a curtain as a shield, 

Each person to my vision clear. 

And all their conversation near. 

XXXYII. 
They were a goodly company, 
Two score or more of gentlemen; 
Some joyous youth with laughing eye. 
And some were grizzled veteran. 
For half an hour each as he 'd please, 
Would throw his coat and take his ease. 
Some laughed in jest and folly free. 
Some gravely talked philosophy. 
Some were discussing works of art. 
While others took the science part, 
A few dissented from the creed. 
On revelation all agreed. 
And all agreed with hearty chime 
It surely must be dinner time. 
They seemed as though from off a tramp 
Some hunters had returned to camp 
Or better still to be compared. 
To ministers who having cared 
For sacred things at conference 
In vigils long, and work intense 
To save the strength that toil impairs 
They look to cooks as well as prayers. 



24 

XXXYIII. 

And here forsooth I must explain 
My muse refused to do her part 
Or lend the glamour of her art 
To light my doubtful way again. 

In truth for an inspired tone 
For language worthy of my theme 
I was dependent on the stream 
That flows from poesy alone. 

It hath not been, and no one knows 
Where heavenly visions bright and clear 
And being of another sphere 
Discribed to men in common prose. 

And can the muse who oft has lent, 
Her charming numbers to describe, 
The scenes across the other side, 
As, viewed from Patmos by me seer, 
Or as in Dante's dream appear, 
With common language be content. 

In fancy I have dared invade 
I'he regions of a distant star 
And hold familiar converse there 
With beings of a higher grade. 

And yet so tinged with mortal fear 
So dim in sight, so w^ak in faith 
My soul its poverty betrayeth 
Unworthy of the muse's care 

My contact was with human mind 
I saw no angels clothed in white 
No seraphs of celestial light [throng 
No great white throne, no endless 
Of the redeemed, with shout and song 
To lower sphere 1 was confined. 

Oh muse the sister of the nine, 
That with Beatrice divine. 
Conducted Dante through the scenes, 



Of Paradise, to lift the screens, 

That veiled the secrets of desire, 

And opened up a circle higher, 

Until the soul coald scarce endure. 

The rapture of a clime so pure. 

Oh! wilt thou deign to touch my theme, 

With but a spark of living fire 

Its rank mortality redeem, 

Its lowly numbers to inspire. 

XXXIX. 

This party of celestial climes, 
On an excursion round the sun. 
Their train a comet, and their times, 
Were dateless as e'er time begun. 
Gifted with wisdom power and grace 
Such as to earthly men denied 
They bore the glories of a place 
Imputed to the sanctified. 
These beings of this palace hall 
Responded to their wardens call 
And through a door in order went 
Into a room without the tent. 
I heard the words of solemn thanks, 
And then the clatter in their ranks, 
Of arms they used, such vulgar tools. 
As students have at boarding schools. 
The fare not such as Gods' delight. 
To furnish on Olympian hight. 
Not sweet ambrosia such as drips. 
Like honey dew from flowery lips — 
But dinner such as mortal greed. 
Suggests when hunger forces need. 
To thus restore the wasted strain, 
Of muscle and of tired brain. 
And from the sordid substance course, 
Make latent strength a living force. 

XL. 

Thus left alone I looked to see. 
The instrument and battery, 



26 

Described as being made to send, 
A message to an absent friend, 
Unto the earth my native place, 
The land of sin the land of grace. 
I 'felt that I had breathed the air 
Electrified by Dion's care 
And then across the horrid void 
Had passed with living light alloyed. 

XLI. 
Just by a silver bell was hung 
I touched it and its cymbal tongue 
Bang out to me a fearful call 
When Dion entered in the hall. 
He was a tall well favored sage, 
His head was white but not with age. 
But was the flowing healthful prime 
The badge of youth in spite of time 
His step was light, his genial smile 
Would banish every thought of guile 
And e'en the glasses on his nose 
A joyous youthfulness impose. 
He rushed as though in sudden freak. 
He clasped hands he kissed my cheek. 
Embraced and fondled as in doubt, 
Which impulse trust, to weep or shoufc. 
As though far back in other days, 
We'd played and romped in boyish ways, 
And neither plenitude of years. 
Of joyous life, or bitter tears. 
Had blotted out one memory 
Of happy days we used to see. 

XLII. 

I met the joy which lit his face, 
And blessed him for his kind embrace. 
And begged of him indulgent care, 
While in a place, I knew not where. 

What Dion Said : 

Forgive my forwardness he said, 

I know the land from whence you fled, 



I know the history of your race, 

Its prestige bright and deep disgrace, 

How flesh and blood immortahzed. 

Was by rebelhon sacraficed, 

I know what riches there hath been, 

Thus bartered off for death and sin ; 

A state of happiness and bhss, 

Is squandered in exchange for this. 

The sordid gloom and black intense, 

Of egotistic ignorance. 

And the sweet altars of the vale, 

For weeping worshippers of Baal. 

Though grief and penitential tears, 

Have been their legacy for years. 

And rebels to their father's will. 

With all their crimes I loved them still. 

I love the never ending fight 

Of marshalled heroes for the right 

I love the stern unyielding tread 

That presses to the fountain head 

And joy to see the beacon light 

Gleam through the shadows of the night 

And penetrates the darkest ways 

With augeries of better days. 

The anguish that oppression breeds, 

Is sweetness when the prayer succeds, 

And times of ignorance and gloom 

Is glorified hy martyr's doom 

Just as the hero of the wars, 

Is beautified by ugly scars. 

The saint who never walked amiss 

Who never felt a throb of pain 

Is sure exceeded by the bliss. 

Of him who dies and lives again. 

Who sinned the most, is most forgiven, 

Who suffered most, most longs for 

The rescued only raise the cry [heaven, 

Of higher life and victory. 

It is as though in nature's ways. 

We seek for scenes to love and praise. 



1^8 

We pass from off the river side 

To where the plains are spreading wide 

Where grass and trees and blooming 

flowers 
Are scattered wald, or grouped in bowers 
And richest fields of golden grain, 
With fruits diversify the plain, 
There cheerful towns and happy homes, 
Are welcome inns for him who roams. 
With every hint of moral care, 
And peace and plenty smiling there, 
This Eden home this healthful air, 
Where wealth anticipates the prayer, 
Would surely satisfy the soul. 
Its reckless waywardness control. 
And be content in happy ease 
With heaven to bless and earth to please. 
But such is not the human mind. 
It leaves those gentle scenes behind, 
And turns aw^ay from flowery meads. 
To where the rugged waste succeeds. 
Where earthquake with convulsion 

breaks 
The plains, to hills and mountain peaks ; 
Where desolation plenty mocks, 
The starving pine to sterile rocks 
Clings with it's bony fingers, thin. 
To brace against the storms and wind. 
The only luring charm displayed 
Is fragments by destruction made. 
'Tis here remorseless winter reigns. 
When gentle spring has blessed the 

plains. 
On lonely height in frozen fort. 
He holds his parliament and court 
Till lengthened days and summer gleams 
Shall break the prison bars, of streams. 
Then as a felon from his cell. 
The water rushes down the dell, 
And fleeing from the chains and rack, 



29 

It leaps the foaming cateract ; 
Then down the gorge it grinds the ribs, 
Of granite safes and breaks the cribs, 
Where nature in the days of old, 
Had hoarded up its gems and gold. 
Still down the hill in merry dances 
It to the summer plain advances, 
Until it settles in the pool 
'Where drooping willows shade the 

school 
Of finny tribes at rest, which seem 
In crystal waters of the stream 
As happy as an angel's dream. 
There thirsty cattle from the heat, 
Seek in tbe shady pool retreat, 
And lave their feet in cooling strand 
From wearied march on burning sand. 
Above the miner, as by stealth, 
Is prospecting for hidden wealth. 
He fills his bowl with watery sand 
And by a motion of his hand. 
Whatever can be made to swirn 
He whirls in circles o'er the brim. 
Until his hungry eyes behold 
The glinting of the yellow gold. 
The yellow gold, the talisman 
That has control of human clan, 
It opens up the granary door 
With blessing for the starving poor. 
It builds the ships and lends the force, 
That speeds the steamer on its course ; 
It lays the land with iron bars, 
And runs the train of palace cars ; 
It pays for wars to slaughter Turks 
And aids in missionary works. 
It buys the rope to hang the thief 
And pays the priest to sooth his grief; 
It bears the burden of the state 
And gilds the honors of the great, 
And e'en the miner as he wrought 



30 

Knows golden brains has brighter 

thought 
To sway the herd of human kind, 
Than intellectual power of mind. 
And thus the ways of mortal life 
Are thronged with an uncertain strife ; 
The toys that wanton with desire, 
That tempt the flood and try the fire 
And both consoles and lacerates. 
On lapping line of border states; 
The throbing agony of peace, 
The bliss of slavery and release, 
The weary woe of blight within. 
The love of good, the love of sin. 
To drink the crimson and the blue. 
To blend the laurel and the yew; 
To love the blessings, love the ills. 
That break the plains in rugged hills 
And make the mountain crags the millt 
To grind and crush and ever grind 
Of all the elements combined 
The food for body and the mind. 

XLIII. 

Thus Dion spoke. With bated breath 
I listened to the words he saith. 
When by the door they had retired 
The company returned with looks, 
As though the blessing they desired 
Had been supplied by careful cooks. 
They paused in much astonishment. 
At me a stranger in their tent ; 
When Dion said with easy grace, 
And pleasure beaming in his face. 
My friends of Sir us we have here, 
A brother from another sphere. 
Not of our race but still our kin 
From intellect and origin, 
For God who annimates the whole 
Has made of him a living soul. 



31 

They rushed to me with happy greeting, 
And Dion's joy again repeating; 
Then in a group they gathered round, 
With smihng glances to each other, 
Each seemed as though he just had 

found, 
A lost and well beloved brother. 
I trembling stood in mute surprise, 
My tongue was nerveless and my eyes, 
Were drowning in a flood of tears ; 
A flow of mingled hopes and fears ; 
A storm of feeling so intense 
It fails the power of human sense, 
To know the wave of ecstacy 
From overwhelming agony 
From either tide in terror fly 
And seeks forgetfulness, to die. 
I made an effort to be calm, 
And hold my senses to their place. 
And spoke with pallid lips and face: 
Pray, tell me where I am. 
Is tiiis the land of holy rest? 
Are these the ransomed and the blest? 
Who left probation and in tliis, 
Where saints and angels dwell in bliss? 
It cannot be that this is — well 
[know it's not where horrors dwell 
Where banished from the peace of 

heaven 
None live, but sinners unforgiven; 
No other climes than these I know, 
No other place of joy or woe. 

XLIY. 

Then Shiraz who was standing near, 
To ease my mind and calm my fear, 
Spoke in a way that seemed to be. 
Of thought sublime and drollery, 
Of men,— he was Hugh Miller's type, 
When young in years and vigor ripe. 



32 

With sad blue eyes and auburn hair, 
That rested on his forehead fair, 
A brain that shadowed o'er his frame, 
The motive power in every aim, 
The seat of wiU, engine of thought, 
That seemed with muscle interwought. 

What Shieaz Said: 
My line of thought and my pursuits, 
Have been diverse from Dion's plan. 
He theorizes and disputes ; 
I take the facts where e'er I can. 
I search for lessons where I dwell, 
That God has wrote on rocks, that tell 
His purpose from the very start. 
And from the learning they impart, 
I reason out the grand design. 
The plans of the infinite mind. 
And when I see those words of his 
I know who the designer is. 
Our friend who has been introduced. 
Who seems quite lost and so confused, 
As scarce to know where 'tis we stand, 
Is yet upon his father's land, 
Can see his windows, light with joys, 
Is yet in hearing of his voice. 
We all are creatures of his will. 
And made for labor, to fulfill. 
His plans to perfect throughout space, 
The rich intentions of his grace. 
We are not Angels fledged with wings. 
Nor seraphs who sweet chorus sings ; 
Who loiter round the golden gate, 
And meet in councils of the great. 
We are the toilers of the sea, 
The soldiers of the border, we 
Are builders of the navies grand. 
That sway the seas and aw^e the land 
From rocky cliffs by plan sublime 
We pyramid the march of time. 



33 

We hew the forest, plow the field, 
We make the sea her treasure yield. 
And from the dark and hidden store, 
We drag to light the precious ore. 
We search from every secret source, 
To aggregate untutored force, 
And train it by disciplined skill, 
To only mind it's master's will. 
This comet star on which we ride, 
Its speed control, its motion guide, 
Once had an orbit of its own, 
A semi-satellite alone. 
'T was free as lazy clouds appear. 
Loose wandering in the atmosphere; 
Yet sheathed within its fleecy fold 
Were arsenals of terror rolled. 
The sleeping cyclone and the storm 
Were ambushed in its bosom, warm, 
One day 'twould send us rain so good 
The next might be the vengeful flood ; 
A meteor once apparent friend. 
And then 'twould bitter curses send. 
As treacherous savages to-day 
Would with their victims romp and play 
To-morrow with destruction dire 
Would raid the town with knife and fire. 
We found what metals would attract, 
Its vicious powers, counteract, 
And latent hold its untamed force, 
As salt will tempt the unbridled horse. 
Thus fettered by the mystic tie, 
We lashed it to a mountain high. 
And held it o'er the roaring gorge. 
In reach of the volcanic forge. 
For years and years these forces play, 
Manipulated on each day ; 
The comet on its centre rolled. 
And slowly gathered in each fold. 
The murky mists of cloud and slimes. 
The nebula of other times. 



34 

At places 'twas in strata laid, [made, 
As though from gathered dust 't was 
Again 't was stone and adamant, 
From the volcano stomach sent. 
Still on it rolled the forges beat 
And left within the central heat, 
And still upon the surface spread, 
The rocks and metals for the bed. 
On which was laid incumbent soil 
Composed of fragmentary spoil. 
And then surrounded it with air 
The light halo you call the hair 
That hides the comet's nucleus 
And stay the gravitating force 
And leaves it subject unto us. 
I cannot tell what length of years. 
To form it as it now appears. 
Unless as a Geologist, 
You handled rocks and mica schist, 
And go with me to where we look, 
On folded strata as a book, 
(For God has always wrote on stone. 
The surest records of his own). 
And read upon the rocks and slates, 
His memorandum of their dates. 
However long ago it's been, 
I recollect its motion when, 
It gathered on the latest dribs 
That covered up its rocky ribs. 
I saw the plants, the fern, the palm, 
First smiling on the oozey calm, 
And after came the perfect flower. 
And after all the forest tower. 
'T was as a spinster at the wheel 
With thread exhausted by the reel ; 
She took the distaff from the racks 
And wound it in the fibrous flax, 
And as she turned it round and round, 
The fleecy tow was circle bound ; 
Then deftly shaping it with care, 



35 

The naked rods became a sphere, 
Of comely form, that held within, 
The ligatures of which to spin 
The slender thread the cable cord, 
That holds the anchor to its ward. 
Or as the worm whose lotted time, 
'Tis spent in toil to reach its prime, 
It gives the wealth it hved to save, 
In making cerements for its grave. 
Thus around it weaves the silken thread. 
That holds incased the living dead. 
And keeps within the callus rind. 
The embryotic life confined. 
So in the globe is held the force. 
That drives the cyclone on its course. 
Confined within by rocky bands. 
Its restless impulse shakes the lands. 
This power so fierce is held at will. 
And wielded by its master's skill, ' 
And Jeeters by his lever makes 
The force propel, or holds the brakes. 
And by apphances to speed 
He holds it to the hne decreed 
And thus our harnessed comet dares 
To drive its course among the stars, 
And flies away through dark domains, 
Where night and silence ever reigns 
Beyond where curbing forces run, 
No day, no heat, no life, no sun, 
The beady stars the only sight. 
Within this vast expanse of night. 
Still on we speed to reach the plains 
Where day and night divide their reigns ; 
Where rolling worlds their orbits reach ? 
And each hold sympathy with each ; 
Where life and light again appears, 
And time is marked by days and years. 
Thus on our migratory raid. 
This solar system we invade ; 
We come to see what God hath wrought 



MB . 

In life in matter and in thought, 
Since last we viewed this plan of 
Back in the solitude of years, [spheres 
To keep recorded histories, 
Of what are after mysteries. 
So may our taught philosophy, 
Keep harmony wdth prophecy, 
A.nd testimony wrote on stone, 
Is thus supported by our ow^n. 
When once within the horizon. 
That bounds the system round the sun, 
By aid of faith, by aid of sight, 
By aid of intellectual light, 
By aid our instruments afford, 
We come in contact with each orb. 
We learn the purpose and design. 
When laying plummet and the line, 
Of worlds proposed in given space, 
To join their comrades in the race, 
Of life and glory, of the band 
That come responsive to command 
We note the forms that matter takes; 
We note what sympathy it makes; 
We mark how life at first exists, 
When dawn of day dissolves the mists. 
We watched the coming of the soul. 
That of the world will take control. 
These wonders of creative w^ord, 
We are permited to record 
In sacred books, where e'er we roam, 
And bear as treasures to our home. 
Then Shiraz paused and turning said, 
I must forbear to farther tread 
Those fields of mystic science where 
I as a student should not dare. 
Zeno, the teacher of our class, 
Of all the things that's come to pass, 
In reference to material things, 
Has grasp and prescience such as springs 
From memory not oft acquired. 



37 

And intellect almost inspired. 
He will instruct you of our race, 
Its origin and dwelling place, 
Of our religion as the key, 
To science and philosophy ; 
Of what we were in early ways, 
Of what we are in later days ; 
How growth evolving from the pod 
Is simply reaching up to God. 

XLY. 

I turned to Zeno,who was thus addressed, 
To offer my obedience and respects, 
When he should stand apart ana thus be 
known [abashed 

And then I paused and hung my head 
As by his presence awed, and speechless 
stood, [power, 

Twas not by trappings that emblazon 
Or fear inspired by a dreaded fate. 
Nor by a presence so august and grand. 
In truth he was in size diminutive, 
And was clothed only as excites no care, 
And not pretending vanity or show 
Still I embarrassed feared to hear his 

speech. 
He seemed a man beyond all human age. 
Yet only aged in vvisdom's count of time. 
Deep lines by thought were graven on 

his brow, [the face. 

Such as great knowledge stamps upon 
Not in glyphics as on a tablet writ, 
To be deciphered and by study searched ; 
But wisdom's emanations, from within. 
Glowed in the lines which we impute to 
age, [youth. 

Infusing there the charm of health and 
One furtive glance across his counte- 
nance [spent. 
Reminded me of scenes where oft I'd 



88 

Uunconscious hours in delicious 

thought; [floods 

Twas by a shelvy cliff where ancient 
Had torn away the seals of records past 
Written coteniporary upon the rocks. 
Awhile I'd study to interpret signs 
Historic of ideal ages past; [mist. 

Made in times of sweltering heat and 
On tepid ocean shore, then turn again. 
To pleasant scenes upon the surface 

spread ; [spring 

The fragrant flower and the leaf of 
Waved in the chambers of the noonday 

sun, [sent life 

And joyous prime with sounds of pre- 
Were reveling on the line of hoary age. 
Telling in words sublime the living 

truth, 
Wisdom's age on earth is eternal youth. 
The Savant spoke, he to me appeared 
Knowledge incarnate ; in human form 
His language was articulate and clear. 
His words animate with inherent power, 
Such as He used who stood a prisoner 

bound, [to quake. 

And caused the monarch on his throne 
These lines which I indite from memory, 
Can only be a faint transalation of 
The argument without the words he 

used. unseen 

With eye and voice addressed to the 
Yet ever near he thus invoked the 

throne. 

XLYI. 

Zeno's Peayek. 
Almighty Father and Creator thou 
Of all inanamite and material things 
The boundary and the arc of all that 
grows, 



39 

With life expanding or intelligence, 
And only grow because Thou has sup- 
plied 
The power that nears them up to thee. 
Another song and peon to thy praise, 
Is made by rushing winds that sweep 

from off 
The Libyan sands of ignorance and sin, 
And stirs the chords of stringed harps 

with notes 
Of love, as Memnon sang upon the Nile, 
When morning sun expelled the desert 

air. 
Each day we live is but another page 
Another step, a stair to. a new plane, 
Whose wonders scale the past and 

doubt disolves 
And faith itself , once so robust and brave, 
Becomes a shadowy ghost and flees away 
When full fruition of Thy goodness 

comes. [sun, 

ihis plane of worlds about this glorious 
Wiiich from creations dawn when first 

began. 
Their elements from chaos to take 

shape ; 
Has been to puzzle and confound the 

wise 
That with supernial vision gathered 

round. 
And wondered; others wept, and all 

amazed, [rushed in 

When evil through temptations door 
And seized the fort and for a time 

appeared 
To thwartBeneficence in forming worlds. 
But now we see and learn a lesson 

grand 
And more profound, in mystery exposed 
Than aught revealed by experience past. 



40 

Or augeries of times, by reason's school. 
Thy providence which underhes it all, 
And brings to view the purposes beyond^ 
Has made of failure a sublime result. 
Sin and evil with their offspring death 
Hath with Destruction's besom swept 

the earth 
And made a desolation of the hopes 
And prospects of the favored human 

race ; 
Now from the ruin, the debris and the 

wreck 
Springs a new life, with fruit more 

glorious, [crime. 

Than was the hal-vest wasted by the 
Another day has dawned. The eastern 

star 
A wondrous luminary has become. 
From the chill gloom of night and 

ignorance 
Has woke the times when the reformer 

rules ; 
And martyrs march in triumph to a 

throne. [the walls 

Now wars and battles have broke down 
That fenced their founders and abettors 

in 
And o'ped the times for peace to hold 

her sway. 
Gaunt famine starved her mistress 

ignorance, 
And science has usurped control of fate. 
The Word revealed has by its right 

become 
The arbiter of states, the fount of 

thought. 
Whose streams descend from holy 

mountain tops 
And nourish valleys with a righteous 

wealth 



41 

And send a thrill of vital energy 
Adown the streams, across the peopled 

vales, 
And by the shores and on old ocean's 

breast ? 
Press on oh Lord, thy conquering 

wheels of power 
And never cea setheir motion day or 

night, 
And hum and roar in temples, mammon 

built. 
And built unconsious of the homage 

paid. 
Or be the flying wheels to skim the 

earth 
On Iron bands whose herald is the flash 
Of lightning trained, on wing to carry 

thought ; 
Or be they splashing on the treacherous 

main. 
To urge the ship against contrary 

winds 
To seek the post where heathen dark- 
ness bides 
With overtures of God's neglected 

grace. 
Koll on, thou conquering wheels, thou 

chariots ; 
Thy coursers are the adjutants of force 
Which in the hills from days of old 

thou hast 
Keserved in bond. That human will 

might move, 
As though of inspiration driven. 
In its returning passage back to thee. 
Speed on, oh Lord, the marshalled host 

of mind, 
The armies that pursue the fleeing bands 
Of ignorance and crime, whose arsenals, 
Thy word revealed — whose citadel 



42 

Is by the academian grove or college 

where, 
The serried ranks of war do pitch their 

camp, 
And train their soldiers for the battle- 
field. 
Press on, oh ! Lord, Thy coming van 

of might 
With burnished arms of industry and 

toil, 
That hew down hills and fill the foetid 

lake 
And cleanse the marshes of malarial 

death. 
That open channels with contagious 

seas 
And sever continents by ways of peace. 
Then they shall lay the forest for the 

use of art, 
And soothe the burning plane with 

moistened cloud 
And Gihon and Euphrates lave the 

shores 
Of Eden's garden,lost, and found again. 
The tiger has no lair, his jungle gone. 
The serpent's rock is made a place of 

prayer. 
The Zones exchange exuberance of 

clime. 
Then famine and her sister pestilence 
Shall starve — from utter want — and vice 

and crime 
And lust and hate and war shall die 
For want of sin on which to feed. 
The soil is purged from noxious 

elements 
The air from poisonous vapor free and 

pure 
The briny ocean concentrates its salts 



43 

In secret caves, and waters pure and 

sweet 
Shall kiss untainted air and fretful seas 
And teasing winds shall make, 
An everlasting peace. 

Eesponse. 

Thus I in awe responded to the prayer : 
Bless, Oh my soul with every nerve of 

thine. 
The God of Genesis, who created all. 
The God of Abraham w^hose gift of faith 
Was compensation for the sting of death. 
The God of our Messiah who has blest 
Our race with such a character and life 
As heaven cannot excel. 

What Zeno Said. 
Then Zeno said : This day my speech 

shall be 
Suggested by the throng of facts around. 
We are now in the full influence of the 

sun. 
Its light and heat and gravitating force 
Control and animate each orb and 

world 
Within the space assigned it by decree. 
Thus, while in mental reach, we test all 

things 
Material, and feel the force of laws 
An impulse of a mind that all controls. 
There is no God but one. Creator he 
Of every atom that forms the mass 
Of every law that permeates the whole 
Of all affinities that aggregate the parts 
And forms substantial things to fill 

designs [light 

Of every instinct, feeblest ray of 
That emanates from off the lamp of 

mind; [thought. 

Of every soul from whence can spring a 



44 

That goes to modify or change a law 
That matter holds and makes a new 

combine, 
Of things suggestive of a glorious use. 
These all are parts of one expansive 

whole, 
Each in accord with each and one 

result, [wrought out. 

One plan and purpose is the sum 
The wisdom thus so grandly manifest 
To reason unperverted, would appear 
As a conclusion sure and no appeal 
Could shake conviction from the 

truthful mind 
Were it not the quality of reason 
Is tainted by the sordid elements 
Of self; by sin implanted, where it has 
The fructifying elements to use 
The vain unthankful swain who sucks 

the soil 
Of essence, which he claims to cultivate 
And boasting of his skill, he spreads 

his board 
With luxuries matured by earth and sun 
And feasts and gloats while the starving 

poor, 
Denied their alms, seek from the state 
That justice which is due ; murmer oft 
At the untimely rain, the w^ind, the 

cold; 
That make the seasons to produce the 

fruits. 
And in the swelling of the stream and 

tide 
Or winter's exit in the nipping frost 
On dearth which whets its murderous 

steel 
Upon the crust of famine's flinty heart. 
In these he thinks he sees strong 

evidence 



45 

Of power conflicting with God's 

providence, 
In thus repressing pride and vanity. 
We, as yon, are alhed in hfe to dust ; 
A spirit chained to material things ; 
A master and his slave, servants both 
To a superior mind and destiny. 
We dwell in other systems of expanse 
So far remote attraction cannot reach, 
And hght alone of all the elements 
Can span the space in thirty moons of 

time. 
You call it Sirus, the chief of stars 
In southern skies, that glows with 

ruddy light, 
Forboding ill when summer solstice 

reigns. 
You who have only learned to know the 

laws 
And mechanism of your system here 
And stand amazed when by toilsome 

search, 
Their fitness is displayed and think 

forsooth, 
That wisdom was exhausted with the 

plan, 
Can scarce me understand when I 

explain 
The laws of force and matter, where the 

word 
Became materialized, and thought 
Assumed consistency in a new form, 
Diverse in plan but in results the same 
As other worlds by the same mind 

disposed. 
We have a central sun the source of 

heat 
Of light and vital essence and supports 
By gravitating power eight other worlds 



46 

Each (perfect for their use) in size 

excels 
The orb of Jove which in these genial 

skies [sun. 

Holds court and majesty second to the 
These no revolvings make around the 

central sire. 
But four suspended from a different 

side 
On the same plane hang pendulous in 

space 
And moves across the centre that 

attracts. 
Then reverse it comes ; the centre pass 

again, 
And with retarded force it touches 

where, 
Its sister world on the. same plane may 

reach, 
The four thus compassing a circle and 
In equal space allowed while one 

recedes 
The mate advances to the point it left ; 
While on a plane vertical to this 
Four other worlds on the same plan 

perform 
Their race at greater distance from the 

sun 
Thus day and night are made by 

turning round 
Each on its axis, while the year is, 

made [it came. 

By one advance and back from whence 
One common atmosphere invests the 

whole ; 
One climate and one life, adapted each, 
And one creation all, and one design. 

The history and the records of our race 



47 

Point to one common pair on Rhea 

made, 
The oldest, by tradition, of our worlds; 
Whose issue spread and peopled all its 

plains. 
'Twas not so fertile as the fields of earth, 
Teeming with luxuries grown from 

wrecks, 
With precious stones, and minerals and 

coal, 
And virgin soil, the detritus of time, 
By composition mixed and groimd 
In awful mills by revolution made. 
To make new substance for another 

class. 
But as our race advanced, God's wis- 
dom shown, 
Along our w^ay,His will revealed became 
Our law supreme. Each plan was 

tried to make 
The soil more liberal of her wonted 

fruits, 
And temper the asperities of the air. 
To borrow secret forces from the caves. 
That kept them hidden to excite the 

search, 
And when we found the use it would 

apply. 
To lighten labor and advance our race. 
The finder was with victor's honors 

crowned. 
About the length of time it took on 

earth 
To gather crime enough to cause a 

flood, 
To wash away the stains of their dis- 
grace. 
Our men of widsom who ruled the state, 
Discovered that the poles of our globe 
Were in attraction, each one opposite. 



48 

Then by decree, to which we all agreed ^ 
They laid metallic bars from either pole 
Until they should have met upon a 

plain 
Near the equator. It was a vast field, 
A continent in size, high, elevated. 
An excrescence vast, a volcanic pile, 
That challenged a reason why it should 

be so. 
Shiraz has tersely said, our atsmos- 

phere 
Was troubled with dissentient mighty 

clouds. 
And vagrant meteors, half satelites, 
That wandered without orbits in the 

air. 
Feared as a scourge and armed with 

cyclone force. 
Thus when the bars were laid from 

either pole 
To where the roaring forge, by bellow- 
ing sent, 
Harsh echoes to the moon, a spire was 

built. 
With glided spear, that sounded for 

fellowship. 
In the crude chaos of the upper air. 
It chanced a meteor that oft had passed 
From either pole across our Khea's 

breast 
Robed in dribling clouds, that oft had 

sent 
Deluge and storm upon its slimy track, 
Was coursing past, the influence felt 
It settled in the grasp of vulcan's forge 
To be conformed to purposes of skill. 
'Twas years of toil and work of master 

minds 
To fit it for passage to other globes, 
By aid of forces as yet unsubdued. 



49 

Thus when our world had reached it 

farther point. 
And paused pendulous before return 
Just at the place where Saturn next 

would come, 
The metal line was cut, attraction 

ceased. 
And gravitation by the coma stayed, 
And freighted with stores and colonies 

of men, 
The comet drifted off. And then was 

tried 
Its cyclone force condemned to serve at 

will; 
To lift or fall or drive its onward course. 
Thus poised, and by its matrix left 

behind, 
It waited on till Saturn hailed in view. 
And as a ship, by storm cast off from 

shore 
Ere yet prepared for voyaging on the 

sea, 
Freighted with" pilgrims whose human 

mind 
Had long been roaming in the infinite, 
By inspiration led, faith became 
The needle pointing by unseen power 
Where reason failed, the coming world 

it met ; 
And on its bosom dropped as into port. 

I know the wonder that now fills your 
mind, 

That staggers credence, and unsupported 
trust. 

Comes limping on with drooping down- 
cast eyes. 

And like a beggar asks her empty cup 
of evidence be filled. 



50 

This, leads me to explain how different 
The moral status of our respective 

spheres, 
With us the words when spoken from 

the lips, 
Means absolute verity of intent. 
No fiction ornaments our realm of 

thought, 
No fancy scenes from false conception 

drawn. 
No world of dreams where the truant 

mind 
Can flee from real things and drink 

delight 
From imagery which itself creates. 
No mythology or tales of olden time 
When men, and Gods, and evil genii 

fought. 
And conquest made, and bloody victories 

won, 
Then peace declared. And monarchs sat 

in state, 
And barred their foes in adamantine 

doors, 
To hold in durance of enternal pain. 
Our history gives no clue when human 

hands 
Would fam have built a tower so high 

that God 
Might see their folly, and confusion send 
To blast their plans, disperse them on 

the earth. 
No tribes or nations have been called to 

build 
A city wall, so vast, so high, so broad. 
Not men could scale, nor engines batter 

down. 
And yet within a single night, a river 

turned , 



51 

And vigorous warriors pushing through 

the breach, 
Surprised their monarch at a revehng 

feast, 
And made of all their wealth on easy 

prey 
No rivers down our valleys flowed 

with food 
To feed a gang of slaves while hewing 

stone, 
In unpaid labor 'neath a master's scourge 
To build the Pyramids, to forever tell, 
The folly of the builders who attempt 
To made immortal what was doomed to 

death. 
While thus we boast our state, it in the 

end 
May prove but folly, when compared 

with what 
Must yet be demonstrate as mercy fills. 
The great hiatus made by sin and crime. 
All ways of men, are foolishness with 

God. 
When once our comet launched on 

ocean space, 
We learned to pass to the four worlds 

on plane 
With Ehea. These are peopled with our 

race. 
The other four are being still reserved 
For higher destiny in God's own time. 

I have no date nor a scale of time 

By which I could explain in language 

such 
That you could know, the years our 

history dates. 
Our homes were started and forms of life 

defined 



52 

While yet your world was swathed in 

mist and heat, 
And only feeble pulse moved from the 

heart, 
And darkness, and mystery of deeper 

hue 
Than darkness, ever was, the eyes 

confused 
Of lookers on, and ignorance exclaimed, 
'Twas chaos and confusion smothering 

out 
In dismal void a shattered wreck of 

plans. 
Abandoned by the architect to chance. 
While o'er that fertile mass a spirit 

broods, 
Penetrating to every atom there, 
Infinite in wisdom, holding formed. 
In the dim space between matter and 

mind 
A picture and a plan, defined in full. 
Grand and glorious beyond the power 

to praise. 
That when wrought out and evolved in 

time, 
The proudest reach of mind exalts 

itself 
In comprehending what was plain to 

view. 
OurCosmos was more sparse of life than 

yours. 
Because life itself had no appointed end. 
Death with his trident and his spear of 

fate. 
With horrid frowns of insolence and 

power 
Such gloomy rounding does his presence 

breed 
That e'en his smile, so ghastly does 

appear, 



53 

The soul with horror shudders at the 

sight, 
Had not a place for it in all the plan. 
But life was to be perpetual life, 
Only when the forces and the elements 
Of organism by which it lived and grew 
Might be exhausted, or the growth. 
Had reached the boundary of its scale, 
When a transition to another sphere. 
Re-opened life without the sting of 

death. 
There was no chaos of exuberant 

thought 
Permeating matter with its nascent law. 
Each growth and era of created things 
Come on without need, its parents die, 
To furnish food for a succeeding age. 
There has been no wars to exteminate 
A noxious race, whose very life ordained 

death. 
An evil necessary to accomphsh good. 
What once we learn is over after 

known. 
What e'er we make it cannot be dis- 

troyed. 
The monuments we build forever stand. 
Living as character or the work of mind 
Wrought into column such as 

Homer built, 
Or Euclid formed, of more than granite 

strength. 
Which ages cannot wreck, nor desert 

dust. 
Lap in dark oblivions gloomy vaults. 
Our government, if such it may be 

called. 
Is the concreted wisdom of our race, 
To lead tbe thought and labor of man- 
kind. 
Where it will be in harmony with laws 



54 

By revelation sent, or learning was found 

out 
Where God's beneficence is manifest 
By his great works and tender care 

for us. 
Where love of life and hope of higher 

bliss, 
With reason armed is given unto man, 
What need there be of penal laws to 

crush 
Kebelhon, when the crime itself had 

more 
Of horror in its form, more terrible 
In its attitude to man, more dread in- 
spired, 
Than punishment of body could inflict. 
One law is all we have to regulate 
Relations with each other, of all kinds. 
"To know no self," each is his brother's 

slave, 
And bound in loving cords to serve 

his will. 
The highest joy and wishes of his soul 
That thrill him with ecstacy supreme 
Is when by thought, or word, or deed, 
He can impart unto his brother mind, 
How truthfully he is indeed his slave. 
Our princes and our potentates in power 
Are they who serve their fellows most of 

all, 
And have by labor scaled the sacred 

heights. 
Where wisdom dwells in zones of 

heavenly light 
Or grope in darkness of the crude abyss 
Where brooding spirits animate the cells 
Of elements with embriotic life 
Of plans illimitable of upward growth. 
And by the breath of intellectual force. 



55 

And light from reason's lamp and skill 

disclosed, 
The latent plan springs into life, and 

claims 
Its seeker and discoverer as its God. 
Thus do we grow, each day a school of 

mind 
To reach a station on a higher plane. 
And muscle with her cunning finger 

trained 
Builds up the pyramids where her teacher 

stands 
On tiptoe, reaching for the light above. 
Our books of which you see a sample 

here 
Are rank in series as the witness leaves 
That rnarshall on the forest boue^hs to 

tell 
With quivering life that spring has 

come again. 
A record have we, of this earth of yours, 
From the beginning, when the word of 

God 
Became the medium whereby the 

thought — 
The essence of intelligence and life — 

became 
Materialized in deft forms unseen. 
And yet appreciable as on the side 
Of matter 'cross the boundary line 

between. 
Thus on the history goes as Moses saw, 
And briefly has transcribed in awful 

words 
So vast in meaning and in import grand 
So that the lens of faith might be 

required 
To reach the thought, and separate in 

stars 
What first a nebulae to view appears. 



56 

Since first we learned the art and power 
to make. 

A meteor star, no orbit of its own, 

Three others we have formed ; one for 
each world, 

And for a haven when at rest they each 

Are moored in the indentures of the 
cone 

About which turns the revolving orb. 

While thus at anchor rest, with smould- 
ering fires 

How they recuperate their might and 
power 

From central force, Seismography ex- 
plains. 

And in the ages, when such tunes occur 

As councils deem it profitable and wise 

Some of our princes and their volunteers 

Who wish to seek and learn of other 
worlds ; 

Will take a comet from its mother's arms 

With chamber strong and bulging out 
with force. 

Such as the vicious cyclone wields in 
flight. 

But now subdued and held by master's 
skill, 

And made submissive as a courser 
trained. 

For such a voyage we long prepare, 

Arranging light and warmth, and at- 
mosphere 

And soil for products, such as comforts 
give, 

And minister to pleasures that have no 
sting. 

With instruments of every kind pre- 
pared 

To deal with light, and its kindred forms 

Of matter how 'er refined, intangible 



Or combined with grosser things im- 
pact. 

To measure distance, or direct our 
course, 

Or test contending currents in the waves 

Of that one sea, which has no shores, no 
zones, 

No firmament above, no oozy base 

Where plummit hne though 't were a 
ray of Hght 

Shot from thehghtning'sbow, with ner- 
vous speed 

It flew, past ages marked, as the swift 
train 

Shoots by the poles that prop the swing- 
ing wire. 

Yet finds no limit to its depth below. 

Ere we had ventured on this our voy- 
age last 

While making preparation for the start. 

My brother Rapheal, with trained craft 
of men 

Built us the temple, which you see, and 
there 

In holy place, inspired, he wrote the 
name 

Of God, that glows with hallowed sight, 
the seal 

That we are never lost, and have a guide 

Where wisdom, such as ours, stands at 
fault. 

Then gathered we our books, much need- 
ed friends. 

To solace absence, in our long career, 

With scenes and pictures of our distant 
homes. 

And souvenirs gilt o'er with smiles and 
tears, 

With prayers and blessings for our safe 
return, 



58 

And kisses sweet, whose memory like 

the lamp 
That burns in window of the hermit's 

cell, 
Make giddy brightness of the grim 

within 
And half redeems the outer world from 

gloom. 
We parted from our friends and took 

our home 
Upon this wandering meteor, which has 

no place 
Among the stars — no orbit of its own, 
No race, no class, no system of fixed 

laws — 
A pariah among the worlds in space, 
A Gypsy denizen, in a state where laws 
All else control; and yet coerced by 

man. 
Is fraught with purpose and aimed by 

design 
To reach with sympathy such intelligen- 

cies 
As God has planted in created worlds. 
The area of its plains that pamper life ; 
Its verdure, climate, with its hills and 

streams, 
Are something like the queen of the 

Antilles 
That holds the bay between two con- 
tinents, 
Where thermal waters flow as from a 

fount 
In channels broader than the Amazon, 
With steady currents 'cross the ocean's 

waste. 
To warm the frigid climes with tropic 

air, 
And builds earth's capitol on northern 

isles. 



59 

Redeemed by it from winter's reign of 

ice. 
We have no law to organize our crew ; 
No autocrat with sovereign power o'er 

all, 
Each takes the part best fitted to his 

skill, 
The only punishment is when denied 
Of doing service to his fellow craft. 
When all were safely on and farewells 

said. 
And Jeeters in his castle, and around 
Were engines, formed for tremendous 

power. 
With all appliances for controling force, 
However subtile or refined in shape. 
Or gross as avalanche from mountain 

hurled. 
Then by contrivance he cut the cord 
That by attraction bound it to the 

world 
And turned the force to driving us apart. 
We upward rose and caught the flaming 

ray 
From central sun, that through our at- 
mosphere, 
Already light, sent double light afar 
Across the field beyond to point our 

way. 
As our old home upon its axis rolled, 
A thousand cities on its teeming plains 
Shone bright with torches from electric 

towers. 
The hills were sparkling o'er with bon- 
fires' blaze. 
And mountain top were gilded with the 

glow 
Of signal torch to answer back our sign. 
And as it rolled the islands shouted 

cheer. 



60 

And weary ships, long absent from their 

homes, 
Out on the lonesome seas, looked up and 

cheered 
The voyagers on the uncharted maine. 
We answered back their words with a 

farewell, 
And blessed our God who thus had 

bound our hearts 
To brothers of our race, animate and 

good, 
A^nd linked in bonds all intellectual 

souls 
Who trace their kindred from a common 

source. 
We passed hard by a moon of Saturn's 

train. 
Which coldly stood a silent sentinel 
Naked of cloudy sheets, a light by night. 
And mistress of the tides ; and of weak 

minds 
A patron to explain the cause of things 
And satisfy ignorance with itself. 
Then as we neared our system's bound- 
ary line 
We bade a long adieu to kindred worlds. 
Rhea, Saturn, Ion, Lida, all. 

And ventured out upon eternal space. 

Our course was north by west, for 
searching out 

A lost fixed star, which in times afore 

Had glowed in heaven's imperion a 
torch 

That beckoned to its windows and ab- 
sorbed 

The wondering gaze of watchers on the 
plains. 

But from some cause it faded in its hue ; 



61 

Then with a thin and sicklv glare of 

Hght, 
Dubious and flickering on the skies 

around, 
It died from out the firmament of stars. 

Time, speed and space, the only factors 

known 
In our swift flight, we had no means to 

note, 
Or by comparing show to minds, kin to 
Terrestrial things ; the distance we had 

gone, 
When on our lee appeared a scene so 

grand, 
So awful, yet benign, that fear and joy 
Alike appalled, each failed to utter 

speech. 
It was no luminary emiting light, 
Nor yet an orb reflecting borrowed rays ; 
And yet a halo — an ethereal glow 
Was shed around, an atmosphere of 

soul, 
Appreciable only to the mind. 
A pavilion grand; it seemed to rise 
To heights illimitable and extent the 

same. 
A curtain with the colors of the bow, 
Subdued and luscious, shed ecstatic 

Hght 
As though from glorious wonders held 

within. 
One glimpse inside, where parted folds 

scarce met, 
O'erwhelmed the soul with conscious- 
ness of its 
Unfitness to behold it more, then back 
It shrunk in bashfulness, and craved a 

cell 
As better suited to its low estate. 



62f 

Then on we passed it, as a vision bright ^ 
Perhaps no dream it was, for it may be 
That Hfe's the dream, and wliat we saw 

might be 
A mansion in our father's house pre- 
pared, 
Where real hfe begins and has no end. 
We next passed by what seemed a field 

of stars 
Whose cheerful light was blent in azure 

space 
Linked in existence; by gregarious law 
They held sweet concert in the circling 

dauce 
And joyed in being from other worlds 

apart. 
Then out upon a horrid gulf we flew 
A gloom of nothingness, a darkened 

void 
Our home far back a distant spot ap- 
peared 
WithOrion and the Bear but dimly seen, 
And e'en our instruments failed their 

wonted skill. 
Still on we speed so lonesome, filled 

with dread. 
We gathered in our temple oft to watch 
The name that glowed supernal, with a 

hght 
To manifest the presence of our God 
As we hung round the blessed ray we 

felt, 
As travelers lost in some vast stretch of 

woods 
In wintry night, and crouching by the 

blaze, 
They shivering pray for dawning of the 

morn. 
Still on we drove, till weariness became 
The languor of a convict in his cell 



m 

When days are lost and senses fail to 

think. 
Then from our watcher in the tower we 

heard 
A shout to look ahead. There was a 

light 
Prom smouldering fire that seemed al- 
most extinct ; 
A waste of matter from exhausted heat, 
A sun had failed in elements of life 
And dieing had withdrawn from planets 

round 
The force and essence that existence 

takes 
We checked our way to feel our 

course along. 
This dismal circle where even matter 

died, 
For fear of debris, floating in abyss. 
When by the coma light of our star, 
Upon our right we saw a silent world 
As large as earth, in sullen darkness 

swathed. 
As tideless drift it without motion lay. 
We turned our glasses upon the waste, 

and saw. 
Its oceans dry, the waters had retired. 
Up to the chaos from whence they 

came. 
And hke the grasping soul of avarice, 
When death ensues its leaves treasures 

back. 
There in old channelsof the gulf stream. 
The crumbling bones of leviation lay, 
Mixed with the spoils and wrecks of 

gathered wealth 
Which commerce felched from labor 

and in turn 
A prey to ocean's piracy became. 



64 

And settled down upon this horrid 

waste, 
There lay the hulk of once a ship of 

war, 
Still on its deck the implements of deathy 
And skeletons of men in rank as placed, 
Upon that awful night when lightning" 

flashed, 
And cast one fitful glare across the 

deep, 
When in a moment's time a change oc- 
curred 
In elements of water, and it became 
Mephitis gas,the stifling damp of death. 
And there that ghostly crew in tattered 

rags, 
And weapons yet in bony fingers 

clutched, 
Still kept their guard as though in 

mockery 
Of life betrayed to services of death. 
Then up a rocky gorge that once had 

been 
A channel where a river flowed, hard by 
An island that between the continent 
And sea, had spread weaving hills, 

and plains. 
Still on its slopes and heights there yet 

remained 
The crumbling fragments of a city vast. 
Its towers had toppled in the desert 

streets. 
And ruined walls, were breaching with 

decay; 
Exposing there — the gathered wealth — 

thus deft 
Without a watcher, caring for the prize. 
One vast theatre still contained within, 
The waiting audience of that fatal time, 
In pit or boxes ranged as fashion fixed, 



65 

In costly robes ; each ghastly form there 

sat 
With cheekless grins yet in place of 

smiles, 
With rings and wristlets on their bony 

hands, 
And glasses hanging over eyeless holes. 
And there upon the stage the actors yet, 
Were grouped into the parts the play 

assigned, 
And leared upon the praisers of their 

gibes 
As though concluding, death was playing 

farce. 
No light from factory window gleamed 

on streets ; 
No hum of wheels or roar of beUowing 

forge. 
No noise of whistles or of clanging bells 
Or rattling cars upon the iron rails. 
Not e'en the lonesome watch-dog's bay 

at night, 
Or distant footfall on the stony street. 
Out in the bay where once proud navies 

rode 
On sparkling waters of the morning sun, 
Was now a gulf of dusty alkali 
Where lay the mouldering ships and 

tangled mass. 
Of chains and anchors and unseemly 

things, 
A cradle of all horrors death can breed. 
There up the stream where once the 

foimtains poured 
The sweet libations from the generous 

hiUs, 
No waters gushed not e'en enough for 

tears. 
There towns were charnel houses for 

the dead ; 



66 

While fields and farms and rolling hills 

and plains, 
And far off valleys wide, where once in 

time, 
CoQverging ways of gathering waters ran 
To bathe a continent in celestial dew, 
Was now a rugged waste, a flood of 

dearth 
Had made destruction more complete 

than when 
Noachian waters had usurped the earth. 
We trembling turned from such destruc- 
tive scenes, 
Nor dared to trust the impious query 

why? 
Our God had taken back the joy, the life, 
Which he in mercy had thought fit to 

give. 
Not long we tarried in that baleful 

sphere. 
Where life and matter were reverting 

back 
From progress to decay, from organism 
Unto chaos, again to be imbued 
With new designs from the creative 

word. 
With speed of fear, as from a dreadful 

plague, 
We changed our course towards this 

healthful sun, 
And on a cheerful wave of shimmering 

blue. 
We spread our banner trailing far be- 
hind. 
We crossed the track, w^here slow 

Uranus rolls 
Its tardy wheels upon its circling way. 
With awe and pleasure mixed, we 

scanned the plane. 



67 

Of Saturn with its girdles wrapped 
around 

A wierd contrivance, in fantastic shape 

To magnify the skill in blending all 

That's good and beautiful in one design. 

With joyful speed we cleft the ether 
waves. 

And made inspection of each world we 
passed, 

To the warm precincts of this glorious 
sun. 

Again with anxious eye we looked on 
earth. 

To note what changes had been wrought 
in years 

By the sweet influence of a life divine, 

Exerted on a fallen human race. 

Though death still raged and crime not 
yet extinct. 

And Mammon's court had greedy wor- 
shippers. 

And folly with her cant and sophistries 

Oft counterfeited reasons' voice, and ut- 
tered doubts 

Of a first Cause, and sneered and mocked 
at faith. 

Who firmly stood upon a monument 

Built up of old with oracles from God 

In cement fixed by reason's grasping 
force. 

Yet still the earth was grander and 
more bright 

In lumination from the forge of thought ; 

With holier atmosphere around her 
ways 

Than ever yet had blessed her guilty 
hills. 

A purifying essence had been infused 

Through veins and channels that per- 
vade the mass, 



68 

Of thouglit and impulse in the tide of 

men, 
As currents in the ocean change the 

cHmes 
Of contiguous shores. Its fountain was 
From Him who taught, who loved, who 

worked and wept, 
About the shores of blessed Gallilee ; 
Whose sorrows were a source of joy and 

peace; 
Whose death a heritage of immortal 

life, 
By the beneficence of His life and 

words, 
The cruel heart is made a heart of flesh ; 
The bondsman's chain is broke, the 

slaver's ship 
No longer marks the seas with serpent 

trail. 
Liberty walks the earth in broad of day. 
And burdens lifted from the back of 

toil; 
The erring are reclaimed by schools and 

prayers; 
The poor are God's parishioners indeed. 
And thus, my brother, though your race 
Has been rebellious, and still bear the 

stain 
Of crimes so great, forgiveness scarce 

can reach; 
Yet we feel honored by the love of one 
For whom so great a savior lived and 

died. 

Then Zeno ceased ; I hung my head in 
thought 

With thrilling joy diffused in every 
nerve. 

And bless the Lord that, though man- 
kind on earth 



69 



Had tested every crime within its range, 
Eebellion, murder and idolatry 
And glutted malice on the Son of God ; 
Yet we were man, and man in perfect 

mould, 
Such as we have in Him who died for 



us 



Of all created things which Grod has 

made. 
In heaven or earth, the greatest is of all. 

Then Dion came ; with him a youthful 

friend. 
Who had the glow of health upon his 

cheek 
And cheerful greeting in his pleasing 

eye, 

And named him Malthus,the historian, 

Who most of all had knowledge of their 
books. 

They showed me then the treasures of 
their house. 

Their instruments so deft and wonder- 
ful, 

I could but feebly understand their use. 

And pictures of their friends, left far 
behind. 

With scenes of home that waked a gen- 
tle sigh. 

On these I looked with austere gravity, 

And felt as some rude savage from wes- 
tern plains. 

When called to visit his "great father's" 
house. 

They many queries made, and most to 
know 

Man's penchant to deceive; why it so 
strong ? 

That he misleads himself with sophis- 
tries. 



70 

And tricks his judgment to a false ver- 
dict. 
Upon admitted facts, and laws well 

known, 
To cheat himself out of his heritage, 
That God by will had given to his race. 
No other answer could I give but that 
Progression was the plane on which we 

moved ; 
And reason, author of the weapons used 
Was left without its shield to wage the 

war. 
With error, vice and willful unbelief. 
Till friction of the war develops power 
In him that wins with glories of a crown. 
Then Malthus smiled as though the an- 
swer made. 
Confirmed the folly, he imputed us. 
And said he next would show to me the 

books 
That gave a history of this earth of ours. 
Then from a cabinet, embossed with 

gold. 
He took two volumes of such wondrous 

make, 
As I had never seen, and reverently 
Upon a stand them laid, then seated us 
And said, these books are from old rec- 
ords made, 
The first we know not of its origin, 
It's copied from the same that Moses 

saw, 
When in the mount ; The Genesis of 

things. 
It gives the facts, severely, but the 

facts. 
Leaves out the law nor does it deign to 

give 
A reason for the facts, or e'en suggest 
The purpose for which they are revealed. 



71 

But perfect each in all their forms and 

parts 
As were the stones hewn out in granite 

hills 
And left in quarries, for the architect. 
To build a temple grand on Zion's Hill. 
So are these facts so true and beautiful, 
Left for the builders of the times to 

come 
To lay in place ; material prepared, 
A temple build so perfect in its parts, 
That when complete intelligence de- 
clares 
Its author and its founder is our God. 
The other book records the facts the 

same, 
As by a witness of celestial state, 
Who looking on with .deep concern to 

know 
The purposes of, the omniscient mind. 
In laying out a plan for a new world. 
And in this record thus more freely 

made, 
He links events with hints and laws 

revealed. 
This latter volume is by us received. 
As more adapted to imperfect minds 
Than are the awful words that wait for 

times 
To give interpretation of their place. 
With modest awe I begged him, let me 

read 
The language of the witness , what he 

saw, 
Or was revealed to him by light inspir- 
ed, 
So I might catch the words of faith and 

trust, 
With reason's sanction in my very soul. 



72 

GENESIS. 

"Before the act was done the actor was 
The Will to do precedes the thing, was 

done, 
All laws are emanations from the mind, 
Matter which cannot think can have no 

will. 
All acts must have a sequence and a 

cause ; 
iVnd cause itself is not derivative. 
And holding law must be intelligence. 
The word the Logos is from mind alone 
An impress of infinite mind becomes 
The Creative power, of the one great 

cause. 
And thus it was in the beginning then 
The word became the elementary parts 
That to vision sermed a chaotic mass. 
Yet every part imbued with life and law 
Of him that brooded o'er the vasty deep. 
And thus the earth was emanate from 

God. 
And as the builder first in his mind has 

formed. 
The plan and purpose of his edifice, 
Then gathers in promiscuous heaps the 

parts, 
Essential in their place for the design 
From the cold stone that slumbers at 

the base, 
To glittering minaret in morning sky. 
Then from the crude entangled mass 

around. 
He models forms of beauty and of art, 
'Till genius, with inventive charms and 

grace, 
Imbues the whole with joy forever there. 
Thus was the earth, from dark and 

shapeless void. 



73 

Into a globe transformed of solid frame, 

With all around a firmament enthroned. 

Then Holy light — breath of the morn- 
ing dawn — 

Looked out from heaven its home — the 
infant cheek 

Of earth it kissed, — when it first im- 
pulse felt 

To start revolving on its destined way. 

8till for a time old ocean reigned su- 
preme, 

O'er slimy vale or stony arch below, 

Till solid earth, with stern volcanic 
force, 

Burst from the cerement of the watery 
grave. 

And bathed its forhead in the new made 
air. 

Then came the feeble forms of primal 
life, 

Prophetic of the grander things to come. 

'Twas life built up on life, till instinct 
came, 

Presaging yet a higher gift to come. 

Each vital force or shade of mind im- 
pressed, 

A special gift a new creative act 

For no such essence matter could im- 
part. 

The laws of life flowed on in lines 
distinct 

Each unto each a parallel in course 

Progression only in the mind divine 

That formed in series each succeeding 
tribe, 

Until the ultimate result was reached 

When the progressive attribute divine 

Was stamped upon his last creative act. 

Filled with a "prescience of its destiny 



74 

The earth rolled on its orbit round the 
sun, 

And the sweet pleiades and the morning: 
star 

With the mild queen of night and me- 
teors all 

Waked heaven with triumphant shouts 
of joy 

And this the song of ecstacy they sang 

Oh, blessed orb. The latest and the 

best 
Of God's creative acts, born of his love 
In justice weighed in wisdom all con- 
ceived 
And holy beauty drawn in every line, 
Exhaling mercy's odor in its breath. 
Roll on, fair world, thy precious freight 
Is the rich gift from inexhaustive wealth, 
Thy destiny, when the result is reached, 
To fill the courts of heaven with minis- 
ters. 
To magnify the glory of our God 
And sound the praise of Him that ever 
lives. 

Then by the process of organic life 
The ocean's fluid secretes in pearly 

shells. 
And corals fair, both in hard rock con- 
densed, 
A solid base for future continents 
In strata laid, meet for the workman's 

skill, 
Who seeks the quarry for the marble 

shaft 
To stand in wildering colonades around. 
The temples raised on Zion's holy hill, 
Or Tadmore sands, or on Ephesian 
plain. 



ib 

Still from the ocean's bed the hills 

arose 
With sloping sides and starving ribs 

exposed 
Down to the base where marshy plains 

expand, 
ank with exuberance of fern and palm 
To be condensed in carbonaceous beds 
And stored in rocky vaults, a bank, of 

force, 
And latent heat, that only intellect 
In future times can know the secret 

hid, 
And finish out the purpose of its make. 
Thus still the wonder grew — what the 

design 
When in the hills the useful ores were 

hid. 
The gold, the silver and the precious 

stones. 
The massive iron and kaolin earth, 
With latent light in oily fountains 

stilled. 
Magnetic centres, matrix of the mines, 
And force electric, a wandering will 
Untamed and wild, and yet a slave to 

mind. 
When once the secret of its nature 

known. 
While all these things were being stored 

away. 
The tenants of the earth were void of 

thought ; 
The sensual beast roamed its reedy 

plains 
To feed the carnivora of the caves. 
The stalking bird trailed by the sedgy 

pool, 
And monsters from the dark and tran- 

gles brake, 



76 

Swam out in shoals with the receding 

tide; 
The seas and inlets swarmed with vis- 

cious life, 
All nature paused and waited for a 

change. 
Before its coming the prophetic power. 
Thus fitting up a home for favored 

heirs, 
Subjected earth to a stupendous scheme. 
The sweltering mist from tepid waters 

hung 
In miasmatic curtains round the bays 
And marshy estuaries ; and up the slopes 
The slimy soil but meagre substance 

gave 
To sedgy reeds and fiowerless palms 

that drew 
Their growth from the dank atmos- 
phere around. 
At the dread fiat of Jehovah's will 
The Artie reservoirs of snow and ice 
Were piled on hills and over mountain 

peaks, 
Up to the plains where sauntering 

clouds 
From batteries masked hurled the hot 

thunderbolt 
That mocks at stony walls and iron 

siaes. 
These awful mills, slow gliding to the 

sea. 
To powder crushed the rocky mass of 

hills 
And mixed with clay and slime, the 

minerals 
A compost made, which, as a covering, 
Was spread from mountain side o'er the 

broad plains, 



77 

An unctious soil, rich in the germs of 

hfe. 
The plains as gardens smiled, and grass 

and flowers. 
All o'er the pampas glowed in every 

hue — 
In every form that beauty could sug- 
gest. 
As islands in the sea, the stately 

groves. 
With silver shafts supporting leafy 

clouds. 
And luscious fruit that back to earth 

returned 
As manna fell to quench the appetite. 
Then through the generous mould pre- 
pared, 
In pebbly veins the limpid waters run. 
Till coaxed by sunshine and the tender 

air. 
It burst in sparkling rills and flowed 
With laughing comrades from the 

mother hills 
Along the cool meandering banks of 

green. 
By sunny isles, where overhanging trees 
Looked in the mirror for its graceful 

form. 
Or dallied in the pool where water-fowl 
Held merry revels without fear of harm. 
Along these plains the lowing herds of 

kine 
Koam'd purposeless; the Ukraine steed 

unbroke 
Throws high his foaming main, defies 

the earth 
And spurning beaten pathway scours 

the plain. 
Such were the scenes along Euphrate's 

shores 



78 

And by Hidekel's streams that gath- 
ered rills 
From pure fountains in Armenian hills, 
By Pison's channels soon extinct and 

dry 
That watered once sweet Araby the 

blest 
To where the Nile its yearly bounty 

gives 
The taxes gathered from its tropic home 
A luscious feast on desert tables spread. 
Low bent the skies on this terrestrial 

scene, 
And eager throngs intently looking on 
With whispering voices each to other 

said. 
"What great creative act will crown the 

prize? 
What form, what mind, what race of in- 
tellect? 
Shall heir this fair domain, this benizon 
The richest gift from an all-giving hand. 
The wealth of thought so richly here 

displayed 
Is worthy of a seraph's tenancy, 
But what have seraphs what have we to 

do 
With treasures fashioned of material 

things. 
So richly spread, so deftly hid, and yet 
Not all concealed but left for skill to find. 
Another soft voiced angel said, I fear — 
Oh no, not fear, I know that wisdom is 
Unbounded in God's mysterious works, 
And yet I fear because I do not see. 
That if this wondrous kingdom is be- 
stowed 
On some created soul with mind to 
grasp 



79 

The plenitude of wealth and power con- 
ferred, 
Immortal in his make, a monarch 

crowned 
With only gratitude to hold the scale, 
Against ambition and pruerient pride, 
That once marred heaven with rebel- 
lious war. 
Another in reflective mood then said 

"It may be so, to finite mind it seems 
A fearful risk to animate a power, 
80 near supreme, as only subject to 
The virtuous reign of gratitude and love. 
But still we know, that should the crea- 
ture fall, 
Almighty wisdom and his love com- 
bined 
Can e'en of failure make results more 

grand. 
Then silence reigned and reverential 

awe, 
The onlyBegotten, God's creative power 
The Word, by whom were all things 

made. 
Without which nothing was — that was 

then made ; 
The Father thus adressed: "Let us 

make man 
In our own image, after our likeness ; 
And let him have dominion at his will 
Over the fish of the sea and over 
The fowl of the air, over the cattle. 
And over every creeping thing that 

Hves." 
So God created man in his own image, 
And breathed in his nostrils the breath 

of life . 
A living soul assumed a house of clay. 
He gave him deeds to his inheritance. 



80 

A royal patent sealed and stamped with 

grace, 
A kingdom perfect, subject to his Lord, 
And be the umpire of his own decrees. 
Thus man was made, the father of a 

race 
Descending from his loins, to fill the 

earth ; 
And each his imprint bears in attitude, 
And has that living soul that ever yearns 
To back return unto his father's house. 

Where man was first conceived, what 

chamber born, 
What process of development and 

growth, 
Is not revealed, 'tis better not to know, 
Enough is told to insure his origin ; 
The founder of his race was crowned a 

king, 
Divine in right, and of untainted blood. 
'Twas near the centre of the eastern 

lands, 
Where earth was freshest from its mak- 
er's hand, 
And fitted up with fondest care as if 
Celestial guests were soon expected 

there. 
The air was pure with life's elixer toned 
And soothed by wandering winds that 

strolled from off 
The northern hills in search of tropic 

climes. 
And met the fleeing gales from torrid 

zones, 
Made tempered air a breathing luxury. 
Along those consecrated vales and 

plains 
The vernal time had come, and trees and 

vines 



81 

Were clothed in beauty of the odorous 

flowers ; 
The grass and herbs sore taxed the 

earth for strength 
To clothe the sterile parts with darling 

green, 
x\nd envious brooks to waken new de- 

hght, . 

Drooled softest music on then- pearly 

shoals. 
The summer shone the yellow harvest 

time ; 
The earth an alter smoked with incense 

sweet, 
When Adam came to claim his paradise. 

He was a man, and nothing more than 
man. 

No Godlike inspiration lit his mind, 

Not even instinct led his dubious way; 

Unlettered and untaught with with la- 
tent power 

To be developed by a tutors care. 

He gazed astonished on the 'wildering 
scene, 

The sun the shadows and the purple 
fruit, 

The sky cerulean, and the chambered 
clouds , 

That crowned the peaks upon the hori- 
zon. 

Heard song of birds, the wood thush 
from the grove. 

Rehearsed his scale of thrilling melodies, 

The ring dove cooed her loving note 
above, 

The lazy flocks recumbent in the shade. 

The quail repeated parodies of rhyme 

And flickers chaffered o'er the scarlet 
fruit. 



82 

Long, long, he gazed upon the land- 
scape round. 
Inhaled the savory odor from the fruit 
And listened to the happy chime of 

birds 
And bees and babling brooks and winds, 
Eolean tuned and rustling through the 

leaves. 
He felt the velvet carpet on the ground 
And pulled the leafy bough, and smiled 

with joy 
As back it swayed, and shadows on the 

green 
In merry gambols mocked the quivering 

branch. 
In happy luxury of new made life 
He breathed the air by inspirations 

deep 
Still looked and wondered till his unsa- 

tiate eyes 
Bhnked wearily to sweet forgetfulness. 
Then gentle sleep on silent wing of 

night 
An angel from the happy courts of 

peace, 
Where no contentions are no broils or 

war. 
No flattering tongues or censor's rasp- 
ing speech 
Can mar the bliss of dwellers in that 

land, 
Came down unseen, and to her girdle 

bow 
Was hung a casket full of happy dreams, 
And in her hand she waved a feathery 

wand, 
Dripping with odor from the mists of 

Lethe. 
Then stooping down she kissed his 

drooping eyes 



83 

And sweet unconsciousness suffused his 

soul. 
Oil balmy sleep the kindest minister 
That ever waited on the human race, 
In Eden's bliss, an interum of rest 
To give new appetite for hallowed joys 
And e'en in exile under banishment 
A bankrupt pauper, this blessing gives 
Exemption from his loss and forfeiture 
And chngs bo him in loving sympathy 
And holds her doors ajar for suffering 

souls 
To give them taste of Paradise again 
The morning came, and on the golden 

bars 
That rested on the orient horizen. 
In equal lines from central source of 



sight. 



In royal car with heralds of the day 
Came Asaph, chief of heavenly minis- 
ters, 
With his commission from creative 

power 
To teach and educate the human race. 
The Angel then, as man appearing, 

stood. 
And watched the sleeper on his grassy 

couch. 
No drapery his perfect limbs enclosed. 
Except the joelous boughs that clust- 
ered o'er. 
And of the sleeper thus sohloquized, 
"And tills the charge my Maker has to 

me 
Committed as a trust, with will inspired, 
As for himself to act, to train to build 
Of this organic structure breathing here 
A living monument of God's attributes. 
His wisdom first in planning out a 
scheme, 



84 

So infinite and so remote from view, 
Only his prescience the result can know. 
His power in equal measure demon- 
strate 
By clothing thought in maternal form 
And bringing from ideal realms of mind 
So great a world ; and grander as a field 
For intellect to test its wondrous skill. 
And his benificence excelling all 
In making man and giving him control 
Of such vast wealth, with the alternate 

power 
To make himself the nearest friend of 

God, 
Or blast with failure all his precious 

hopes. 
And last his mercy (yet to us unseen) 
In holding in reserve a scheme of love 
To thwart the failure by a new design. 
This sleeping form of animated clay 
Is father of a multitude to come 
And hold the earth in fealty to God, 
And its abundance use to honor him. 
Or it may be, a being less than God 
Cannot such high estate forbear. 
Ambitious pride may undermine his will 
And lead to punishment justly entailed. 
Of his decendants make a scattered 

troop 
Of wandering nations — sunk in deepest 

sin. 
Till sensuous brutes, and thorns and 

weeds 
His high prerogative on earth defy. 
But hush those vain suspicions ; here's 

my task, 
To train these feet to walk in holy 

ways, 
These hands to lift in prayer, and altars 

build 



85 

And skillful work perform — not menial 
toil— 

And make earth lovely as a psalm of 
praise. 

These lips and tongue to ever speak the 
truth 

In words that charm, as music charms 
the soul. 

That thoughtful brow, to keep it ever 
pure 

From mark of shame, whenever lifted 
up, 

The smiles of heaven will play upon its 
crest. 

As sunshine lingers on the tranquil sea. 

Then Adam woke and saw the angel by 

Whose face was veiled in mist of hal- 
lowed light, 

And closed his eyes in bashful rever- 
ence. 

Then by direction, on his bended knees. 

With the first accents of his tongue he 
thanked 

The Author of his life, and blessings 
craved 

To meet the wants his body now re- 
quired, — 

For strength and wisdom to direct his 
way. 

Then Asaph led him to the flowing 
stream. 

Which from the fountains in enchanted 
hills 

In captious speed adown the channel 
run. 

Or loitered in the pool to sport awhile, 

W^ith dainty sprites the cresses and the 
fern, 

Then hurrying dowm in ripples on its 
way. 



86 

Then stooping down, the pupil met his 

face 
Mirrored in the coohng draught he 

took, 
And Asaph said, ''May his descendants 

ne'er 
Take draught for quenching thirst 

unless they see 
Reflections of themselves, approving 

there. 
Then up the stream and to the left they 

turned, 
Ascended by a slope, to where a plain 
In gentle indulations spread afar, 
Crowned with a generous soil that 

w^ould not bear 
An evil weed or useless burr or pest. 
Of insect life or any variance from 
The growth that met the proper wants 

of man. 
The fig was reaching out its tempting 

pulp. 
The vine was purple with the clustered 

cup 
That dripped libations to the mother 

earth ; 
The peach was blushing hind its leafy 

fan. 
And rudy nuts in goblets waived the 

milk 
That vied with wine in luxury of taste. 
There on the ground the creeping vine 

assayed. 
To match the bounties of ambitious 

trees, 
Lay out their luxuries in straping globes 
Of mottled green or fragrant yellow 

rind, 
To quench the thirst or meet the appe- 
tite. 



87 

Not far apart, and yet aloof from all, 
There grew a tree with stalwart arms 

outspread, 
And on its boughs was tempting fruit 

displayed, 
That flashing in the light with Iris hues 
Concealed the gloomy upas underneath. 
Then Asaph said to man, of all the 

trees 
That in this garden grows, they mayest 

eat 
Except that tree forbid, with gilded 

fruit. 
For that is evil, because it is forbid ; 
This tests thy fealty to a righteous 

God. 
For in the same day thou eatest thereof 
In sinful dying though shall surely die. 
The tree that in the garden grows 

amidst 
Clothed in perenial verdure, its coy 

fruit. 
Almost concealed, it is the tree of Life. 
Earth has no kinship to its caste 
A transplant, it, from nurseries above — 
iVll allegory of the word that lives. 
With essence of its phototype infused. 
The leaves are for the healing of the 

race. 
The fruit when eaten gives immortal 

life. 
Then Adam said my Maker and my 

God, 
To him alone all honors will I bear 
Wilt thou but teach and lead me 

in His way. 
Then Asaph said in tender sympathy. 
The earth is thine and all therein as far 
As the receding horizon extends. 



88 

Thine all the Hora and the beast and 
bh-ds, 

And fish that swarm the deep, and hid- 
den things 

That restive lie beneath the earth and 
wait 

For intellectual skill, and cunning 
hands, 

To resurect and shape them into forms 

By art contrived or wisdom may sug- 
gest. 

All these are thime to seek their pur- 
pose out, 

And be returned with usury to him. 

In working out thine own development. 

In intellectual harmony with God, 

This garden well supplied with gracious 
gifts. 

Suited to every want without concern ; 

Is but to give thee life sustaining 
food 

And leave thee free, to elevate thy soul 

By holy prayer and diligence of mind. 

The hidden realms of thought search 
out. 

So thou mayest enter and be recog- 
dized 

Among the ministers around his throne. 

Train now thy hand to dress the garden 
with 

Some new conception of own design. 

Eliminate or increase as thou mayst 
see 

Will meet the purpose of thy being, 
here. 

The leaves upon the tree of life are 
near, 

To heal thy ailments, and make thy 
toil 

Sweeter than indolence or passive ease. 



89 

The fruit is ever ready to secure thy 
hfe, 

And ever thou beware to evil learn 

When once to know can never be un- 
learned. 

And thus the day passed on and in the 
time 

The pupil ate of lucious figs and drank 

The milk of nuts and juice of pulpy 
grape, 

Then coming darkness ventured on her 
way 

And lulled the wearied pupil to his rest. 

Again the ruddy morn came from the 
east, 

(A poem in the word of blythest 
rhythm) 

And with its rays Asaph returned un- 
seen 

To watch and wait upon his scholar's 
course. 

Then Adam rose performed his orisons, 

And bathed himself in the pellucid pool, 

And took his morning meal in thankful- 
ness; 

Then paused in deepest thought to 
contemplate 

What place in life his duties to begin. 

Tired with the problem, he observed 
the bees, 

In humming song they skipped from 
sweet to sweet, 

Then straight they flew to where a 
mighty brood 

Of kindred gathered in a common hive ; 

The idle birds that seemed to spend 
their time 

In glee and song, had each their nest 
and home. 



90 

Wrought in the boughs or hid in cran- 
nies old, 
Where love is born and memory paints 

the scenes, 
That brighter grow, as shadows come 

with age. 
"Quoth he," ray subjects, these, yet from 

them I learn 
A lesson sweet, that has a joyful note, 
That fills a vacant recess in my soul. 
"Home, home," the sanctifying spot 

where thrives 
The holiest virtues that imbue the 

heart. 
And cling around its portals as the vine 
With dewy pearls and flowery breath 

embalm 
The sacred air about its vestibule. 
First will I build my home and altars 

raise — 
Toil without rest is slavish punishment, 
No rest can be where no abiding place. 
Then in his mind in dreamy substance 

wrought 
Arose the forms of palaces and cot, 
Which after times has sanctified with 

song. 
Invention then was swift to make the 

plans. 
The hand was ready to perform its part. 
Yet something else must be provided 

for— 
The tools required by which he might 

coerce, 
All other things as subject to his will. 
With purposes maturing in his mind. 
And grander schemes still looming up 

beyond, 
He wandered far in searching for a stone 



91 

With sharpened edge, for trimming oft" 
the boughs. 

Two pohshed hints picked from a 
chalky bed, 

Were smote by each to give the proper 
shape, 

When from the stroke a spark sprung 
and gleamed 

As though a spirit from confinement 
scaped. 

With awe he paused, was all the gifts 
bestowed 

Charged with a vengeful force repelhng 
him 

In every effort made to change its form. 

Again the blow, and from the fracture 
leaped 

The vivid flash, the burning supplement 

To force evolved from motors latent 
source. 

He pondered long to save the hint ex- 
pressed, 

Stretched out his thoughts, as eyes 
search in the dark 

With vain misgiving of the things un- 
known ; 

Just then his teacher 'erst unseen ap- 
peared 

Explained the wonder, that the instant 
fire 

Was nature's agent for dispensing laws. 

And shapeing matter into new designs. 

Then led his pupil up a rocky gorge 

Obscured in shadows from the sunny 
light, 

By hazy smoke, that from a furnace 
rose 

In wavey circles to the upper air. 

Then in its throat of red hot flame he 
poured 



92 

Assorted ores with ready flux com- 
bined ; 

And from the base in viscid currents 
ran 

Tiie molten mass into the hollow 
molds. 

The pupil watched, and from the clayey- 
forms 

He took the hardened bronze in every 
shape 

That art could wish or usefulness de- 
vise. 

Thus armed with tools and by his 
teacher led, 

He smote the earth, the rocks and for- 
est trees. 

And on the fairest spot in his domain 

In beauty rose the sacred pile of home. 

In quest of treasures to adorn its walls, 
He rambled to the margin of the river 

wide. 
Where grew the reed. Papyrus with its 

leaves 
Of fibre, tough and smooth and glossy 

sheen ; 
On these in folios or in frame displayed,. 
He tried his skill with pallet and the 

brush. 
And mirrored from his mind — whatever 

form 
By nature there impressed or fancy 

wrought. 
These labors of his hands; divinely led,. 
A cheerful pastime were, not menial 

toil 
That numbs the soul in chilly darkness^ 

and 
Leaves it alone with vile and sordid 

greed. 



93 

A grander project for his labor oped 
To make a schedule of his property 
Which Grod had given for inheritance. 

He noted first the inorganic things, 
The soil, the rocks, the coal and miner- 
als. 
The air and water, the heat and light, 
With laws and qualities that each 

possessed. 
The solid adamant and minerals 
That seemed eternal fixed in their 

estate. 
Were by some motion of their filmy 

parts 
Changed in organic structure to new 

things. 
A divine inflatus each atom stirred, 
And motion gave in its own void, apart 
From each in ranting speed it swept 
Across the space where nothingness 

abides, 
A thousand years, may be, it took to 

reach 
A new arrangement in a crystal form. 

From forms of matter to organic life 
He next directed his research and 

thought. 
All things animate, with life imbued, 
Were subdivided into kingdoms three. 
According to position to the earth. 
The first, the head, was downward and 

the lips 
Or roots drew substance which ascend- 
ed 
And made the growth of its posterior 

part. 
The next, were those whose form de- 
veloped , 



94 

Lay on a horizontal plan and crawled 
Or walked or swam or flew in the same 

way. 
The third, and monarch of them all, 

was he 
That stood erect and on his shoulders 

hore 
A temple with divinity impressed. 
Then in his books with ready pen and 

brush. 
He noted all of the first class that 

germinate. 
And reproduce in species of their kind. 
The mossy cryptogram and the silent 

fern, 
That fringed the uncouth rocks in 

shady wood. 
The humble daisy and blue-eyed violet. 
And crested palm that spurned its 

lowly kin. 
To giant oak, a column to its roof, 
Pretentious more of beauty and of 

strength 
Than Doric pile or Corinthian shaft. 
And from its sinewy heart and stubborn 

knees, 
The keel of floating palaces are made 
That walk the air with staff of tallest 

pine, 
And parts the e dying waters with its 

strides. 
With artist skill he drew in colors true. 
And named them in their order and 

their class. 
That beauteous host which Flora gave 

the earth 
To make its saddest haunts to smile 

with joy. 
From lowly clover and the daffidil. 



95 

The red bud of the wood and milk- 
white thorn, 
Where revehng bees are humming with 

dehght, 
Up where the grand magnoha waves 
Its floral offering to the dainty clouds, 
In clusters bright as colony of stars 
That glitter in the azure vault, below 
Where Orian hangs his glittering belt 

and sword. 
The humble grass that carpeted the 

lawn, 
And monocotyledens of the field, 
The flags and reeds that hung around 

the swale. 
And snarhng cactus with the starving 

sage,— 
These all were named each of its kind 

apart. 
This pleasant task absorbed a score of 

years, 
If years were worth their counting unto 

him. 
Whose wealth of time was without 

limit while 
The tree of life was in his reach to 

touch. 
His books now grown to ponderous 

tomes in size 
Were ranged in seried ranks upon his 

shelves ; 
Each stored with precious knowledge 

learned 
From source divine, for Asaph and his 

corps 
Of heavenly mentors yet led his way ; 
Directed his research, and when his 

mind 
Was staggered with the weight of 

problems dark, 



96 

And danger seemed that human search 

might take 
Erroneous ways. A teacher near with 

mind 
Inspired of God, disolved the mist and 

left 
A sure conviction where a doubt ap- 
peared. 
And through the books were sketches 

of his tramps, 
Adown the stream or up the mountain 

side, 
Or cross the lonely moor, or by the 

shade 
And sunny slopes of his own Eden 

home. 
And on the pages writ was oft a song 
In measure sweet, when ever human 

words 
Could catch the inspiration of the 

hymn, 
That glimmered from the furnace of the 

soul. 
And with the measure of the words was 

set 
The music caught from doors ajar of 

heaven. 
That on the lyre steeped every sense in 

bliss 
That animates the choir of praise 

above. 

'Twas when a day of holy rest had 

passed, 
A first day morn was gleaming in the 

east 
That Asaph said these books are for 

your race, 
A legacy of wealth to educate 



97 

When thou in plentitude of years shall 

take 
Thy exit hence, to dwell in higher 

courts 
With thy compears in wisdom and in 

grace. 
What thou hast done is hut an earnest 

The labor yet before in making out 
The names of creatures thou hast 

dominion of 
In ail the earth, the air, and the vast 

sea, 
And naming them, thou must surely 

know 
Their forms, and elements, in which 

they live ; 
Their qualities and instincts so that the 

nan.e 
May indicate their character and life. 
So let's prepare, this ordered work to 

do; 
Eecord and seal the substance of our 

toil. 
For if it is by inadvertance lost. 
Five days shall pass and morning of the 

sixth, 
Each day a thousand years, before thy 

sons 
Shall cumulate again our labor here. 
They into classes formed and orders, 

next 
General species and individuals, each 
Commencing at the base where feeble 

hfe 
Almost abort, ill formed, in cell, or sack, 
Or radiate with connecting segment 

joined. 
Monsters with Hyra heads, or Acepha- 
lous 



98 

Of brainy marrow all devoid, and yet, 
Though hideous as misconception's 

faulty work, 
Each contained the elementary parts 
That formed a base for highest type of 

life. 
Then they that dwell in pearly valves 

with gates 
That holds the lonesome wealth to each 

confined, 
And after death the undecaying shells 
Congeals to sturdy rafters for the globe. 
Then the crustacean and articulate, 
With forms unique and istinct sharp 

defined, 
And vertibrates of oviparous kind, 
Up to the mammel tribe whose tender 

young 
Draws from the mother its support and 

growth. 
With cheerful ardour, his exultant task 
He undertook, his domain searched to 

name 
The creatures thus committed to his 

care. 
Not e'en nutritious fruits the garden 

bore. 
In mellow ripeness and in easy reach. 
Was half so sweet to hungry palate as 
Was this rich treat prepared to feast 

the mind. 
With flying sail adown Euphrata's 

stream, 
He met the ocean's wave in coming 

tides, 
And of its voiceles, tenants made 

account. 
The coral, molusk, and anominae, 
The huge cetacean and the dolphin 

fleet. 



99 

The blear-eyed monster with his speck- 
led team 

Of nimble pilots hunting for his prey. 

And his congenor with Briarian arms, 

And horny beak with eye of baleful 
gleam, 

That sulks in ocean caves, its victims 
draw 

With slimy suction to its demon coil. 

At other times he searched out Pison's 
vale, 

The sweetest waters of the quaternian 
band. 

From wooded hills its clear, pure cur- 
rents ran, 

And richest verdure spread on either 
side 

Down to the Coromandel coast, where 
pearls 

Of purest azure tempt the divers toil. 

There ranged the zebra and the wild 
gazelle, 

The Arabian mare and the lowing herd, 

Whose very trail across the grassy 
mead 

Betokens wealth that glads the human 
heart. 

There Bactrian ships that glide the 
sandy sea, 

And hairless elephant, whose thought- 
ful eyes 

Looks in the windows of the human 
soul. 

And all that walked the earth, that 
crawled, or flew. 

That lived by prey or fit for sacrifice,— 

These all were named in order of their 
kind. 

This pleasant toil made glad the flight 
of time ; 



100 

Days, months and years were as a 

noonday dream, 
In covert shade when work made rest 

so sweet. 
Then at his quiet home with copious 

notes 
And trusty sketch and memory stored 

with themes, 
And with advising teachers alway near. 
He fihed his vacant books with gath- 
ered spoils, 
Drawn from research with analyzing 

thought. 
And as the treasure grew an envious 

pile 
A supplement to wealth he had re- 
ceived, 
A weighty thought oppressive to his 

soul 
Absorbed his reverie ; and even faith 
Could scarce fortend the cloudy doubts 

before. 
For whom this wealth? from whence 

his heirs to come? 
With patent of their parentage, worthy 

him 
Whose busy feet should highways make 

o'er hills 
And plains, through dales or by the 

river side, 
Or mark the sea in squares there guide 

boards set 
To point the wandering sailor to his 

port. 
No worthy object of his love and care 
To lead and educate in all the love 
His vigils sought or inspiration learned. 
And yet he knew, in purpose of his 

make 



101 

The plan was laid, development would 

come . 

And hunger for companionship would 

feed 
On living bread provided by decree, 
Asaph well knew, by fiat of his make, 
That he was dual born, in him the 

germ. 
Of that new life, that was to be to him 
The better part, a union so concrete 
That life as circles are, would be com- 
plete. 
Thus Adam brooding o'er the mystic 

th PTTie 
Evoked to'life the scheme of destiny, 
A.ud felt an incubus from his loins ab- 
sorb 
His healthful vigor and disposing 

thought. 
The teacher watched his pupil day by 

day 
And foiled his moody thoughts with 

cheerful tales 
Of tender love and gentle witcheries. 
To sweet of bhss they taste for real 

things 
Cannot intoxicate like fantasies. 
Now came the stillness over Adam's 

soul. 
Dark and umbrageous as the sleep ol 

death 
And even dreams with all sensation 

T)?issed 
His swolen side the angel then explored 
And found abnormal life in a false 

womb 
Conceived, and yearning for estate of 

life. 
Then in the side of the anestheized, 



102 

With polished blade a wide incision 

made, 
Caesarian like, and from the prison took 
A new born life, the mother of mankind. 
Then closed the wound with styptics 

bands secure, 
And left the somnolent to be restored. 
The babe thus woke to preternatural 

life 
No aaguish knew, no wailing accents 

pealed, 
Nor languishment as though from 

dreaded fate 
Would back return from whence the 

spirit came. 
The food and sleep, the day, the night, 

and sun 
And air with perfume vexed from 

breathing flowers 
And holy status that environed it 
Diffused a growth and vigor in her 

frame. 
Ere many days while yet the parent 

slept 
Her tiny feet had pressed the mossy 

floor, 
And cunning fingers twisted in his hair. 
The first of all created men awoke, 
A thrill of ecstacy jarred his frame, 
And eyes uncertain, with a doubting 

film. 
With nervous clasp he felt his wasted 

side. 
And realized the vision, not of sleep. 
With joyous arms he laid her to his 

breast, 
A cherub fair but yet of human mould. 
And nought forbid him calling her his 

owm. 



103 

"Thou art bone of my bone, and flesh of 

my flesh, 
And ever, ever, will 1 cling to thee 
God's own best gift, a counterpart of me, 
Eefined and sublimated from my gross- 
er parts. 
This new found bliss engaged his every 

care. 
All wealth which he as monarch owned, 
All goods which he as servant held of 

God, 
The lovely aeries of the sunny field, 
The flowery pampas and the sylvan 

grove. 
The mount whose swollen breast con- 
cealed the ores 
Of gold and silver mixed with precious 

stone. 
The flocks and herds upon a thousand 

hills 
What were they all while yearning love. 
Was pining for its mate unsatisfied. 
New dreams of life more glowing and 

refined 
Than airy baseless visions of the night. 
When sleep has chained the monitor of 

mind 
And left the fancy to invent its flight 
Now bent their iris hues across his 

sight ; 
In hearty prayer he thanked and 

praised his God 
Who thus had blessed his lot with ful- 

est joy 
And pledged to him anew. Alas, alas. 
The first of frailty is divided love. 
The task of teacher he assumed with 

zeal, 
'Twas pleasure sweet to hear her lisp his 

words, 



104 

To catch the glowing histre of her eye 
As with her dimpled hand she pointed 

out 
The radiant glory of the setting sun 
And asked to know who set such won- 

ers there. 
Her childish talk to him were quaint 

conceits 
Brimming with poesy rich as the wine 
O'erflo wing from lihatious cup to earth, 
The solemn moon she said had played 

Bopeep. 
When e'er the wandering clouds ob- 
scured its face — 
And charged the saucy stars had 

winked at her. 
To such infirmity puerile and weak 
Does grand philosophy seek to be allied. 
Then in a book of nemonclature made. 
He wrote the words, ''Her name is 

Eve," because 
Of all of human kind hearafter born 
Of every type of high or low dagree 
In every clime in every age to come. 
Condemned by sin and in trangrans- 

gressions yoke 
Or free and happy in the love God 
Of all who bear the impress of a soul 
Of spiritual and immortal essence made 
She is the mother of them all. 

Oh, Eden fair the Paletine of heaven. 
The demon spirit lurking round the 

walls 
Would surely stay his entrance while 

he hears 
Innocence embodied in childish voice. 
The tree of life still shed its healing 

leaves. 



105 

The fruit of evil waived its charms in 

vain 
The school of knowledge of the good 

went on 
By Asaph led inspired by the Allwise. 
The happy subject of their anxious care 
Grew day by day in intelectual 
And moral growth still rising up 
To that high plane where implicit faith 
And love to G-od is the supreme result. 
The daughter Eve had learned to know 

the fruit, 
And from the juicy pulp sweet nectar 

made, 
And served the draught in shelly cups 

of pearl, 
And bread fruit cakes with dripping 

honey smeared. 
Her daily walk was by the crystal 

stream, 
Where finny schools would gather as 

she came 
To take a bounty from her giving 

hands. 
No creature was so lovely but received 
A benefaction from her thoughtful care. 

A shady spot there was with vines 
o'erhead, 

Where oft she sat and wrought in silky 
floss 

The netted girdle and becoming hood, 

And colored bands to stay her locks 
aside. 

And rustic frames to border scenes of 
art, 

With cone or leaf and base of nut com- 
bined. 

While busy thus with work (or play it 
was 



That kept the restles nerve and muscle 

from 
Intrusion on the attribute of mind), 
Her thoughts recured to lessons she 

had learned, 
How from chaotic void the Lord had 

made 
The earth so beautiful, in wisdom great 
Beyond the power to even comprehend^ 
And with munificence, bespoke to life, 
A countless myriad to enjoy its bliss. 
And over all had given them estate 
Whom last He made, in human form 

erect. 
With parts and senses, to perceive and 

feel 
The joy that springs from life in con- 
tact with 
Material things, the air the sunshine 
The satisfying food and quenching 

drink, 
And half intoxicating draughts of love. 
Not yet forbid though so intense and 

dear. 
But grander yet, to us is is given to 

know, 
'Tis God who made us, and communion 

hold 
By consanguinity of soul and mind 
With being of a higher state, and pass, 
And come through open doors to pala- 
ces 
Where no preferments go beyoni its 

bounds. 
While thus her thoughts in holy cur- 
rents ran. 
The sweet musicians of the field and 

wood 
In tuneful notes their ways of life be- 
trayed, 



107 

As though in song there was a drama 

played. 
The woodthrush from the tangled brake 

hard by 
Poured soothmg notes of tender lan- 
guishing 
Of love bestowed and love betrayed 

again. 
Her truant brood returned ingratitude 
For wasted cares and left their shel- 
tered home. 
The dove in cooing to her callow young 
Inveighed the cruel falcom that had 

slain 
Her loving mate, and left her prest with 

woe. 
And so each warbler, in its story song, 
Touched tender notes still moist with 

dewy tears, 
That thrilled the minor chords around 

the heart 
Where tempered sadness seems the 

nearest bliss. 
The serpent now, more subtle was than 

all, 
The beasts of the field which the Lord 

had made ; 
And as the woman sat, with humble 

crawl 
Crouched at her feet, and to her face he 

prayed 
With eyes, intended for beseeching air, 
Yet keen discernment lurking in their 

depths. 
He thus addressed her, in his gentlest 

tones. 
Oh! Being fair, of all most beautiful. 
In grace of form and goodness of thy 

heart, 



108 

Wliicli yearns in sympathy for thy sub- 
ject low, 

Thou hast not learned from Adam or 
the seer, 

AVho curb thy knowledge to restricted 
bounds, 

That pleasure, which is the salt of hap- 
piness, 

To thee's denied as a forbidden feast. 

Know thou the richest draughts of bliss 
must come 

From evil's source now contraband to 
thee. 

The love, now scarce excused, thy hus- 
band bears 

To thee, is infelicity compared 

To that rich fervor jealousy imparts. 

The limpid sips you taste of its o'erflow 

Are not like luscious drafts by passion 
stained, 

And turned like wine to ruby red, with 
sparks 

That flash intoxication through the 
soul. 

Shall the stale walks of wisdom hold 
thy feet 

In narrow lanes, while pleasure's fields 
around 

Are rank with fancy's flowers and fruits 
forbid? 

These all are art's adornments and 
conceal 

What gross infirmities might mar the 
plan. 

Knowledge the wit of Gods ; they all 
do know 

Both good and evil, and can best decide 

The better part, would'st thou forego 

The thrill of joy the pang of grief pro- 
vide, 



109 

And that sweet sadness for another's 

woe, 
Creation all to which thou art allied, 
And made of common dust, we all have 

sprung 
By evolution from the selfsame life. 
Commends thy grace and claims thy 

sympathy. 
Our blood and bone, the morrow and 

the flesh, 
Are warmed and animate by passion's 

heat, 
We thirst and hunger, thrive on pride 

and lust. 
Feel Coy and bliss antithesis of pain 
Without the sting that conscience spear 

inflicts 
With thy great learning, won from 

source divine 
And gift of intelect akin to God's, 
And thou shouldest now evillearn to 

know 
Thy sway on earth would be supreme 

indeed. 
Knowest thou that God who has made 

us all. 
And granted life, by each to be enjoyed, 
Hast laid on thee the sorest weight to 

bear, 
Forbid the pleasure which thy flesh 

demands, 
Denied the knowledge which nature 

craves, 
Is only testing thy simplicity. 
And playing on thy want of skill to be 
A sovereign master of a race of slaves. 
In other Beings formed and tribes of 

life 
No contributions of obedience 



110 

On them are laid, thattliey should 

service give 
To him alone, no other lessons learn 
Than what their teachers may to them 

impart ; 
It is not so what God has said, "that in 
The day that thou eatest thereof, dying 

thou shall 
Surely die." But thou shalt he wise as 

Gods 
Knowing both good and evil. 
With indignation moved the woman 

said 
Advunt thou limbless monster from 

my sight, 
Thou art no creature which our God 

has blessed. 
Abortions offspring, without feet, or 

fills. 
Or wings, to locomote ; thy very breath 
Is poison with the bags beneath thy 

fangs. 
And ranker venom of of thy cold blood 

heart 
The spirit of a wicked fiend within 
Blinks acid malice from thy baleful 

eyes. 
My very soul feels horror at thy sight. 

To which the serpent unabashed replied 

I love thy speech, thou art no suckling 
spawned, 

Thy scorching tongue betrays thy pas- 
sion's heat. 

And love of fierce encounter in thy soul. 

Beshrew me not, till thou hast learned 
me more. 

But at thy board, this evening, tell thy 
lords, 



Ill 

On whom thou waitest, how thou hast 

reviled 
With bitter imprecations, and sharp 

speech 
A simple worm, which dared to you ad- 
vise. 
And take I charge thee their rebuke, 

and words 
On love, forgiveness, modesty and 

grace, 
In resignation to thy dreamy bed. 
Tomorrow at this hour, beneath the 

tree 
That bears forbidden fruit, I'll meet 

thee there. 

The serpent kept in poise his luring 
eyes. 

The woman's face was grand, 'twas 
pitiful, 

'Twas like the northern sky appears at 
night 

When Borean spirits flash across the 
field 

In crimson glow then pallid white 
succeeds 

Then shimmering light in nervous 
dance expires. 

She glanced beseeching to the vacant 
sky 

As though for some supporting angel 
near, 

Eetreating then with trembling doubt- 
ful step 

She backward moved from the enchant- 
ed spot 

Till disenthralled, she fled for refuge 
home. 

There in a sheltered recess closed and 
barred. 



112 

She sought to give her reason chance 
to act 

And indicate the drifting of her heart. 

What strange new world is this to 
which I've come, 

Where fear attracts and dread enticing 
charms, 

That which I love, has a seductive 
power. 

But yesterday the word of God was 
sweet 

And love and loyalty the delight of life. 

Then the unwayward paths of duty and 

The lessons of obedience to him 

Were sum and boundary of of my de- 
sires. 

What strange wierd spell has overcome 
my life 

Which makes me feel as though a pri- 
soner, bound 

In solid walls for my confinement sure. 

And as by chance, in rambling round 
my fort, 

I found a door ajar, and looking out. 

Another world I saw wherein there 
grew 

In rank profusion fruits forbidden here. 

The air of liberty and passions soil 

Produced the poppy full of opiate 
dreams, 

And richer vintage from the grape dis- 
tilled. 

On smoking altars broiled the savory 
meat, 

And garments rich set off the human 
form. 

Liberty was law and love ran riot 

With naked cupids as her ministers ; 

There pleasures fields whose flowers ex- 
haled 



Halucinatingmist, which quite obscured 

The toil disease and death, that lay be- 
yond. 

Oh, cursed serpent had I never knew 

By sensual sight the forbidden scenes 

Which thou hast opened to my fleshly 
eyes, 

Then had I been at peace. Peace forev- 
er gone. 

While thus abandoned to that shameful 
state, 

With conscience chained and baser lust 
set free, 

She heard the coming step at eventide, 

Of Adam from the labors of the day. 

As was her wont she met him on his 
way. 

In hopes his cheerful mood and fond 
caress 

Would break the horrid spell enclosed 
around. 

With joy he kissed her brow of inno- 
cense, 

And said, How has my darling passed 
the time ? 

I must defend from thy reproachful 
look 

For being absent long. The work this 
day 

Kas been grand indeed, absorbing- 
thought. 

I now bethink me, how thy ardent mind 

Of late has thus to such perfection 
grown, 

And looked beyond the lessons tendered 
thee 

To that uncertain realm of consequence 

And cause where our poor intellects are 
lost. 



114 

And leads us into utter ruin unless 
Inspired wisdom lights the dubious 

way. 
Henceforth thou must be with me, 
A fellow-worker in the mighty plan. 
Prescribing us our destined course in 

life. 
Already have we nomenclature made 
Of living organisms of all their kinds 
And marked the use to which they each 

apply. 
This day with Asaph I have spent 

abroad ; 
Up in Havilah land, with rocks and ores, 
Alloting plans and purposes for each. 
These silent cliffs and gloomy rocky 

gorge 
Are speaking witnesses of God's de- 
signs. 
Yea, prophets are foretelling of the time 
When earth shall be resplendent with 

their use 
In other forms. The solid granite and 

the slate 
Match base and roof in future temples 

reared : 
And speaking marble, whose cyrstals 

shape 
Themselves in forms, by coercion from 
The artist. s mind. And oh, most 

strange of all. 
We found a vein where heat and light 

itself 
Was in black armour cased ; and there 

was 
TheBedlium and Onyx stone and Gold — 
And the gold of that Havilah land was 

good — 
In other providential days to come 



115 

By hands of our race, wrought out, 
we'll see 

The earth shall sparkle with embehsh- 
ments, 

And works of use and art, significant 

Of mental power developed and led out 

By strength inherent and the teacher's 
care. 

To which the woman said in low, sweet 
voice. 

Teach me to sympathize in all thy 
plans. 

And bear me wdth thee to that pure 
ether where 

Malarial sickness cannot taint the soul : 

For in truth I, do my weakness fear. 

I feel affinity for the tribes below, 

The fondling stark excites my sympa- 
thy. 

And thrilling song of the sad night- 
ingale, 

Meets a responsive tremor in my heart. 

The bird thou hast mamed "of Para- 
dise," 

Which breathes enchanted air of happi- 
ness, 

And flash their fairy plumage to the 
sun. 

Are free from all restraint and teacher's 
care; 

Now me a partner make in thy pur- 
suits. 

The man replied, To-morrow morn I 
meet 

With Asaph on the hill-top as the sun 

Comes peering from concealment of the 
night. 

I wish to know the secret of its course. 

The mechanism by which it moves in 
time 



116 

Of perfect measure, each engagement 

meet 
According to the season. And how the 

moon, 
Which seems appointed watcher of the 

night, 
Doth vary in its coming, and often 

skips. 
Its wanted place, and travels by the day 
Obscured m brighter hght. And how 

the stars. 
In constellations twelve, each in their 

turn 
Are heralds of the day. When these 

I've found, 
I shall no more forego the pleasure of 
Thy sweet society ; this Eden home 
Shall be the nursery of domestic bliss 
In rearing scions to our heritage. 
And oh! the joy I feel to contemplate 
The bliss extatic, infinite and pure, 
When the conclusion shall be reached, 

that we 
Shall be perfected, the final link 
In that unbroken line of life, that from 
The lowest form of animated things 
Extends to God, and heaven and earth 
Shall be a common ground; and sanc- 
tified 
By spiritual control of intellect 
Subservient to moral rule, just as 
The qualities of matter, are confined 
By virtue of their being, to his law. 
Then evil, which is departure from all 

law, 
A chaos of disorder, and rebellion 
Of sensual attributes which refuse 
Observance to the legal sway, wherein 
Creation rests in unity of plan. 



117 

Thus as they talked they sauntered on 
the path 

That lay in maizy winding through the 
grounds. 

Then on a sheltered seat where oft 
they'd sat 

Their evening repast they partook with 
thanks. 

Then as they wandered to their shel- 
tered home, 

The Bulbuls notes came as a shower of 
sound 

And soothed their senses in its charm- 
ing rest. 

Then Adam kissed her brow and said 
good night, 

Let angels guard thee in thy hours of 
sleep ; 

He to his couch alone for amorous love 

Had not supplanted yet the purer love 
he felt 

As daughter severed from himself, and 
yet 

To be a chosen vessel bearing unto him 

An offspring free from taint, or kin to ^ 
all 

The animated creatures of the earth. 

In realms of thought there is a border 

land 
Along the shores of Lethe, there the 

sea 
Of sleep is overhung with atmosphere 

of dreams 
Whose currents mix withmaunderings 

of the mind 
While yet it lingers on the silent shore. 
Thus Eve while on her little couch 

alone 



118 

Would strive to hold her thougts by 

reason's helm; 
The vague uncertain wind from dreamy 

seas 
And bearing odors from some island 

lost, 
Tinged with suspicion of forbidden 

sweets 
Would drift hear heart from where her 

reason held. 
Before the dawning of the coming morn 
Adam awoke, as though the time of 

sleep 
Had rested on him lightly, and the spur 
Of his appointment urged him to the 

hills 
To catch the lesson that absorbed his 

thoughts. 
His partner Eve thus left to work 

alone. 
The sum of holding life to legal bounds, 
She too awoke, (and with a stifling sob 
As though her heart would fain escape 

the day,) 
Not as she used to rise, with happy 

smile, 
To meet the cheery morn with glad 

response. 
But with the faithless mind and heavy 

heart 
Which indecision breeds before events. 
Then in the bath she washed the 

trace of tears 
From off her cheeks, and wiped her 

eyes. 
From the imperfect visions of the night. 
Her toilet made by braiding of her hair; 
With strands of gems adorned her 

shapely neck, 



119 

And silken scarf about her bosom 
twined 

Eich with the smell of the pomgranate 
rind, 

Her morning greeting to her humble 
friends 

Gave equal joy no pale of rank between. 

The twittering birds that built then' 
homes in trees, 

And coveys of the quail and pheasant 
shy, 

Each claimed a gentle word and boun- 
teous feast. 

These trifling themes arrested her em- 
ploy 

From the great sadness on her sunny 
hpRrt • 

Which rested as the sea, by currents 
warmed 

Of flowing waters from the Tropic 

Yet on its warm maternal bosom lay 
The icy berg, intruder from the north. 
Which drifted chilly ripples to the shore 
Of vernal isles, where the bland zephyers 

kissed 
The hawthorne bloom and chased the 

thistle's down. 
Then with slow step she wandered on 

apace. 
And often paused, then started on anew; 
She from her inmost thoughts sohlo- 

quized: 
Would I were worthier of my mate and 

sire 
That I could solve the duties of my 

state, , 

Could lay my life in line with reason s 

chart 



V20 

And lightly bear the sway of law, and 

feel 
Beyond its operations is discerned, 
God's wisdom, founded in his love to us. 
These mystic themes I do not under- 
stand. 
And cogitating only leads to doubt. 
I do not love to think. This violet 
Of blue cerulean around its heart. 
Can smile, and praise, and does not 

have to think. 
I love the sun aside from mysteries, 
Its fervent rays make sweet the cooling 

shade, 
Ifc dies the harebell with the blue of sky. 
And ripe's the harvest with its yellow 

rays 
I love the taste of fruit the smell of 

flowers. 
The crystal nectar quenching to the 

thirst, 
I quaff as thoughtless as those spotted 

fawns 
That trail their dam into the purling 

stream. 
They /do not think their happy looks 

betray. 
They do not have to think, they shun 

the task. 
I love our God for all his precious gifts, 
I love the hberty which I enjoy. 
Of tasting with the senses his good 

things, 
Of feeling that his mercy over me 
Is stronger than the biting force of law. 
The serpent said that I should meet 

him here. 
Why should I fear, is not this God's 

domain? 
Am I not His, has he not given to me 



121 

This garden fair? Ah, I bethink me 

now 
There was a reservation in tlie deed 
That we should not eat of fruit which 

grew on 
The tree of knowledge of good and evil. 
If that be so, how came the serpent 

here 
With silver tongue belieing God's de- 
cree ? 
Doth God permit His enemies around, 
Spiritual in essence, to assume the form 
Of stolid brutes, with logic too pro- 
found, 
For me, who am in His image made, to 
Comprehend, or see the subterfuge. 
I now remember Asapli oft has said, 
There is but one creative power ; He 

made all, 
One plan, one common substance from 

himself 
Transmuted into matter and to mind. 
Is the prime source of all created 

things. 
If that be so, how can it be, that one 
Intelligence in this deceptive form 
Can be allowed to contravene His plan? 
I have a doubt, had I not come so far 
As to be encompassed by the spell, 
I should return to have this doubt re- 
moved. 
The serpent lay encoiled ; his mass of 

flesh. 
By influence sinister without brain, 
Did spaak inteligibly from his tongue. 
The air around delicious was with 

fames, 
Exhilarating in their rankness from tlie 
fruit 



1-22 * 

That was always ripe upon the tree of 

sm. 
"I greet thy coming mistress," thus he 

spoke. 
The gifts to thee are not misapphed ; 
Thy love of knowledge well becomes 

our queen, 
Whose wisdom soon will rank among 

the Gods'. 
The woman to the serpent talked and 

said : 
I much suspect thy siibtility and guile; 
Thou art in form symbolical of flesh. 
Without limbs or parts for use, a type 
Of that great kingdom animate on earth 
Which God hath made before our com- 
ing here. 
'Tis true we all are made of common 

dust; 
The food, the drink, the life-sustaining 

air, 
Are common fountains which we all 

partake. 
Yet my being was not evolved from 

thine ; 
T'hou art but organism that life begets. 
And when thy body unto dust returns. 
Thy life recedes again to common air. 
While in our forms God breathed the 

breath of life 
Undying as himself, and though the 

clay 
It vivifies, may disintegrate. 
Yet it renews by virtue of its life ; 
And if perchance its covering were lost 
The soul is not dissolved, to God who 

gave. 
It must return and to Him give account 
For all its doings in another sphere. 



12:5 

The gods you challenge thus as Beings 

wise, 
Are transient fragments of a fleshy life 
Subordinate to the fixed laws of earth. 
The spawnings of illiteracy and igno- 
rance, 
Whose utmost stretch of power is where 
God's mercy will not intervene, unless 
The law of justice is first satisfied. 
These gods of yours abide in misty 

caves. 
Or far off mountain tops, or sylven 

shades, 
Or be the princess of the outer air, 
And foster lust in disobedient hearts 
And work corruption in the sensual 

mind. 
'Tis said there is a pandemonium vast 
Where spirits born of passions of the 

flesh 
Degenerate from immortal entities 
And wed to sensual lusts of sin and 

time, 
Death's emmisaries that deal in craft 
Permitted life as life's abortions are; 
Demons they are and held apart from 

all 
The creatures God has blessed, that in 

His plan 
Extend existences to His own state. 
We claim no kinship to these gods of 

yours. 
We are spiritual in origin and destiny — 
Made by Him to crown creation's act, 
And bring all qualities that partake of 

mind 
In every shade of moral attribue. 
Or thrill emotions that stir the heart 
From instinct up to high causality ; 
These all to bring subservient to law 



124 

And mark with wisdom all his high de- 
signs. 

Now, serpent, doth thou not know that 
God 

On the transgressor will inflict the law 

And penal death will surely follow 
crime? 

The serpent said, Wherein consists the 
crime 

Of eating fruit that God himself hath 
made? 

And learning wisdom by experience, 

Will He such pain inflict upon himself 

As to forego the filling of His plan 

And make a wreck of all this grand es- 
tate? 

Doth not the tree of life still waive its 
fruit? 

An antidote prepared for threatened 
death, 

The woman looked upon the fruit, and 
it was fair. 

With savory smell suggestive of the 
taste, 

The appetite was strong, the reason 
weak. 

And flesh is craven, when left to fend 
the right. 

While pleasure's palate raged unsatis- 
fied. 

She put forth her hand, and plucked and 
ate, 

And took thereof for her partner's use. 

As she returned with heart already sore, 

She met her husband, seeking her with 
fear 

And anguish, blanched upon his face. 

With downcast eyes she offered him the 
fruit 

That had already sealed her fate, to die. 



125 

Then Adam stood appalled, conviction 
sure 

Of all the consequences of the crime, 

Both to themselves and all the world to 
come, 

O'erwhelmed his soul, as by an ava- 
lanche. 

'^Oh, partner of my life," he said, "thou 
knowest 

But little of the ravage thou hast made 

Of plans divine for earth, and even 
marred 

The bliss that dwells in heavenly courts 
above. 

Because tliQu art my own, and I am 
thine 

Indissolably bound for life to each. 

To take or not to take is equal death to 
me, 

I eat this fruit and bide a common fate. 

But let me say from this commanding 
height 

On which we stand, from which we soon 
must fall, 

The wail of anguish from our ruined 
souls 

Shall echo back unto caeation's dawn, 

zVnd roll like moaning seas upon the surf 

On every ear in coming race of man 

Till time's exhausted strength shall 
cease to bear 

The weight of events and creation dies. 

Around the ashes of our hopes con- 
sumed 

The hollow pleasure only yet remains 

Of counting up the loss, and realize 

How poor and beggarly we are indeed. 

"Twere folly to expect this crime con- 
doned, 



126 

The law of God and its observance 

stands 
As the dividing hne between the two, 
The fleshly kingdom and the spiritual; 
The one is life, with passion unrestrained 
By moral law, or obedient will. 
Without discernment to select the good 
Or accountability for the bad. 
It dies by virtue of organic law. 
The kingdom new for which we were 

destined 
Is fleshly organism with the breath of 

life. 
Inspiring it with intellect and will, 
And linked the creature with celestial 

things. 
Reason and law alike declare to me, 
If our carnality predominates, 
And we rebel in loyalty to God, 
Death surely comes as attribute of flesh, 
And we are doomed to die with mortal 

tribes." 
Then Eve replied: ''Oh, husband, close 

the veil 
And shield my sight from miseries to 

come 
Upon our offspring, to death condemned 
And left in ignorance to grope without 
A teacher inspired of God to lead. 
What mercy can be shown! I only plead 
The serpent's wiles, and my weak frail- 
ty as 
A poor defence against this monstrous 

crime. 
Lest Asaph come, — Let's seek a place 

to hide 
And aprons make, for now I see and 

know 
Our spiritual quality is lost -^ 

That once enveloped as a covering, 



127 

And we are left in shame and naked- 
ness. 
While thus a self-convicted, refugees, 
And in the evening cool God's minister, 
Whose loving care had guarded them 

thus far, 
Walked in the garden and not seeing 

them 
Called: "Adam, v^here art thou?" And 

Adam said : 
"I am naked found and have hid my- 
self." 
And Asaph said : "Who told thee that 

thou wast 
Naked, and hast dispoiled thee of thy 

robe 
Of righteousness which concealed 
Thy form of flesh, and left thee thus 

exposed? 
Hast thou eaten of the forbidden fruit?" 
And Adam said : "The woman thou 

gavest 
To me did eat, and gave to me to eat, 
And I partook with her." The woman 

said : 
"The Serpent beguiled me and I did 

eat." 
Then Asaph said : "Oh, wretched pair, 

thou art 
Without excuse ! The ways of life and 

death 
Were from necessity left to thy choice. 
To hold alliance with thy creator 
And claim the living soul from Him 

received. 
As an immortal essence from himself. 
Untainted by relationship of blood. 
Or lineage with the tribes of earth. 
Was birthright and prerogative of thine. 



128 

Yet in thy foolish weakness thou hast 

chose 
To claim base origin and leave in doubt 
Thy parentage, and human reason 

might 
In future times be thus misled to sa3^ 
Thy intellect is but instinct ripened 

out, 
Thy statue from sub-perfect scale 

evolved, 
And thy life is mortal as the beast that 

dies." 
Then Asaph to the serpent said : "Be- 
cause 
Thou hast done this thing, enmity shall 

be 
Betwixt thee and the woman's seed, 

and it 
Shall bruise thy head; and thou shalt 

bruise his heel." 
Then He to the woman said: "Be- 
cause that 
Thou hast mocked the law, by taking 

counsel 
Of thy enemies, I will multiply 
Thy woes ; in travail deej) shalt thou 

bring forth 
Thy children, and thy desire shall be to 
Thy husband, and he shall rule over 

thee." 
The woman said, while on her bended 

knees: 
"I thank Thee for my sentence; it is 

Hght 
Compared with my transgression. I 

will take 
The yoke, subjective to my husband's 

will; 
Myself alone in pain and sorrow bear 



Children to him/' Till ])romised Sliiloh 
come 

Of Woman's seed, and not by man 
begot, 

He shall redeem us. Then shall womaii 
be 

Vindicated, and her long forbearance. 

Her faith, and patience in her grief, and 
the 

Sweet charity that baffles wrong, shall 
be 

The mail and weapons which His sol- 
dier's bear, 

When thy with us shall overturn the 
thrones 

And kingdoms of His adversaries and 

The whole earth shall be Immanual's 
land. 

Nor shall His conquest cease, until the 
bars 

That held the greedy doors of the un- 
seen, 

Life's terror and death's secret there 
enclosed, 

And as those adamantine walls give way 

There shall arise a shout of rescued 
saints 

That death is swallowed up in victory. 

The woman ceased and Asaph to Adam 
said : 

Thou must be banished hence, the gar- 
den trees 

Withhold from thee their volutary fruit, 

By sweat of brow thy food must be 
supplied. 

The tree of life is barred from thy ac- 
cess, 

For dust thou art and unto dust shallt 
thou 

Eeturn again. 



180 

Tlien x\dam said : Our sentence is but 

just, 
I only mourn that our iniquity 
Should visit the unborn, and ignorance, 
The quahty of brutes, a legacy 
Should leave ; my precious books so 

amply filled, 
]3y wisdom thou hast learned me, in all 

things 
Thy admonitions of our duty how 
To keep our high estate with dignity ; 
All, all is lost, our bad example here 
Only survives to plague our progeny. 
As moaning of a coming storm I hear 
The roar of passion in conflicting strife 
In Cimmerian darkness, and see the 

light 
Of faith in God, though oft submerged 

not yet 
Extinguished. The sacraficial altar 
And the epitaph shall mankind keep 
As fragments of a will almost destroyed 
Inspiring hope of immortality 
And peace restored. They glow like 

camp fires left 
Upon the field, where routed armies lay. 
To all my hopes and aspirations now 
I take farewell, assume my menial task 
Of conflict with defying thorns and 

weeds 
For bread, from our mother earth, who 

has turned 
Her face from me, I could not bear 
This gall of disappointment and the 

frown 
Of indignation from offended God, 
Were it not from this calamity is born 
The angel mercy, sweetest of the train 
That wait upon the pensioners God, 



181 

She with her sisters three, faitli, hope 

and love, 
Abide with us, though we are banished 

hence. 
Then Eve with gentle resignation said 
To Adam, who thus stood with troubled 

brow: 
Let us depart and pitch our tents 

among 
The flocks and herds outside the garden 

walls 
Ere we by murmuring shoud yet pro- 
voke 
A sharper sentence, I will take my place 
A helpmate in the exile, by thy side 
A slave or partner as thou elect 
With no weapon armed to maintain my 

right 
Except my love, God hath endowed me 

with 
To be my siheld and scimeter, it shall be 
More potent than the fiercest arms 

when held 
By martial ranks in battle's stern array. 
Yea, by my faith I see the coming time 
When it shall subjugate mankind 
As doth the sun by its attraction hold 
By bonds invisible the wayward earth 
And satisfies submission by its beams. 
Then as they turned their lonesome way 

to go, 
Asaph, in pity of their shivering flesh. 
Made coats of skins, and therewith theui 

clothed, 
Then Adam said : "Oh, woman, let us 

haste 
Lest on this holy ground we yet should 

meet 
Some angel who has known us when 

we sat 



132 

in holy livery with the sons of light, 
And they should see us wearing this 
Ignoble badge of shame and dying flesh 
Which we have earned by disobedience, 
And thus in sadness and contrition deep, 
With yet four seraphs brightest of the 

train 
Hovering o'er, the exiles took their 

way. 

So deep absorbed had I become 

In reading of the sacred tome, 

That when I ceased, I could not tell 

What length of time had yet befel. 

I looked around in vain to see 

Some members of the company, 

But all was vacant, lone and still. 

And the stone temple on the hill 

Was silent too in dusky sight 

Of darkened day or lightened night. 

No clouds above, and yet the sky 

Was shimmering with some mystery, 

A soft confusion from afar, 

Like voices from another star. 

Bat where were all the friends I've met. 

Whose greetings lingered with me yet. 

Had they retired to sleep from care ? 

Or were they spirits of the air? 

Were things around me what they seem, 

Or was my journey all a dream? 

The books were there, my heart yet 

thrilled 
With wondrous lessons they instill'd, 
And everything to eye and ear 
As true realities appear. 
I mounted to the platform where 
They observations made, and there 
The battery with a golden line 
Was painting the home of mine, 



13:^ 

As though a train of sympathy 
Passed on the cable through the sea. 
I felt the thrill the human heart 
Will always feel when long apart 
It back unto the borders come, 
And catches glimpses of its home. 
Its crimes I could but disapprove, 
I knew its grave's unsatisfied. 
Yet could not feel it wrong t9 love 
A race for which a Saviour died. 
I longed to clasp the brave and good 
That cleaved to right and spurned the 

I blessed the martyrdom of blood 

That reconciled us to His will, 

I longed to see the milHons free 

That had endured the chains so long ; 

I longed to walk by Galilee, 

And hear the sequel of the song 

Of peace on earth, good will to men, 

\s on the plains of Bethlehem 

The chant was heard in joyful chimes, 

And chorus left for after times. 

An instrument was trained hard by 

On the same object in the sky. 

And through the strange assorted lens 

I looked to see what there depends. 

I saw the place from which I'd fled 

As from a land of woe and tears, 

Now moving with the pressing tread 

Of multitudes to brighter years. 

The scheme of glory in its plan. 

Developing since it began. 

Was now so manifest to me 

When its perfections I could see. 

Where all the parts from pole to pole 

Seemed fractions blended in the whole. 

It grandly rolled upon its way. 

And met appointments day by day, 

No minute lost, no second gained. 



134 

It swung upon its course ordained 

And held absorbed in its embrace 

The only ham an dwelling place 

With blessings meted for the race 

Where all the good for sin derived 

By love and mercy are supplied. 

And first I saw the ocean wide 

Then mountain top with cloudy side, 

And as I peered with earnest sight, 

I seemed to catch the gleaming light 

Of cities' torches on the plain, 

Or by the margin of the main, 

Where sturdy ships and warehouse tall 

Exchange the burdens of them all. 

I had no consciousness of time, 

Of speed or space or change of clime ; 

I felt desire almost to pain 

To breathe the air of earth again, 

To live the life it lives and die 

In hope of immortality. 

Still as I stood in hope and fear, 

I seemed to feel earth's atmosphere ; 

I pressed the sod, I felt the dew, 

I looked around and then I knew 

This was the hill from which I fled. 

The stars were shining overhead ; 

Far in the north with banners higli 

There was the comet in the sky. 

J. F.H. 



